Comic Book / Adventure Time Graphic Novels

A series of graphic novels based on the cartoon Adventure Time. Danielle Corsetto wrote volumes 1, 2, and 5. Kate Leth wrote volumes 3, 4, and 6. Volume 7, 8, and 9 were written by Josh Trujillo. The first four novels have art by Zach Sterling. Volumes 5 and 6 have art by Bridget Underwood and Jenna Ayoub. Volume 7 has art by Sterling and Phil Murphy, and volume 8 by Murphy alone. Volume 9 has art by Sterling, Ayoub, and Murphy. Islands was written by Ashly Burch with art by Diigii Daguna, and had a back-up short by Marina Julia. Volumes 10, 11, and 12 were written by Jeremy Sorese, known for his graphic novel Curveball and work on Steven Universe comics, with art by Sterling. Volume 13 is by Leah Williams and Sterling. The first six books include backup shorts written and drawn by Meredith McClaren. The volumes are as follows:

• Volume 1: Playing With Fire: (June 2013) Finn and Jake take Flame Princess to the Carnival Kingdom, where a fortune-telling Dragon steals Finn's soul (Literally), forcing Flame Princess to traverse a puzzle filled dungeon to get him back. The volume also contains a short, silent story featuring BMO playing around with Finn and Jake's weapons.

• Volume 2: Pixel Princesses: (December 2013) Lumpy Space Princess hosts a Princess party, but when things don't go as planned, she wonders if she should even be a princess, going so far as to throw away her gem. Outside, BMO is passing by the area and, wanting to go to the party, wishes "he could know what it's like to be a princess inside". Magic Man, hearing this and bored, grants his wish and transports LSP and her guests (Muscle Princess, Breakfast Princess, Embryo Princes, Turtle Princess, and Skeleton Princess) into BMO. The only way out is to beat the games within BMO, but can the princesses work together to do so? There's also a short dialogue-less story that focuses on Gunther.

• Volume 3: Seeing Red: (March 2014) Jake goes to visit Marceline after she calls Finn and him over (Finn is off doing errands). She explains that she's going to the Nightosphere for a family reunion as well as to retrieve her axe bass, which she left behind on her last visit. However once she gets home, Marcie finds that her father sold the guitar. Needing it to use in the family's talent show, Marcie and Jake head out to track it down. There's also a short story featuring Lumpy Space Princess and her quest for a purse.

• Volume 4: Bitter Sweets: (November 2014) Princess Bubblegum makes a journey to the outer kingdoms to recharge the magic gems that power the Candy Kingdom. While the previous books were black-and-white, this one was printed in color. The back-up short involves Jungle Princess and a magic fox.

• Volume 5: Graybles Schmaybles: (April 2015) Finn and Jake wake up after hearing their names called, and find a little cube that can project a screen, which shows them images of an enigmatic thief plaguing their friends. The back-up short has BMO cooking.

• Volume 6: Masked Mayhem: (December 2015) On Ooo's Masquerade Day, Jake and BMO investigate a series of prank attacks on parties. The back-up short follows a week in the life of Starchy, as the Candy Kingdom's janitor.

• Volume 7: The Four Castles: (May 2016) Finn and Jake are challenged to retrieve four magic artifacts and prove their worthiness to join a mysterious Heroes' Guild of the Manyverse.

• Volume 8: President Bubblegum: (November 2016) The legendary Constitution of Ooo is rediscovered and reveals the land to be a presidential democracy. Election time!

• Volume 9: Brain Robbers: (January 2017) Lumpy Space Princess persuades Tree Trunks to help her in a plan to steal treasure from the evil Zombie Twins. But when Finn and Jake pursue them in the hope of protecting Tree Trunks, Finn's brain is stolen!

• Islands: (March 2017, un-numbered) Set a thousand years before the main franchise, this is an Interquel between the "Stakes" and "Islands" TV multi-episode arcs. A young girl named Jo, or Bunny Girl, who was once protected by Marceline, takes part in an exodus of humans across the seas to escape the vampires who have taken over the main continent of Ooo. The back-up story, set in the present, has BMO advising the reader on how to take care of goldfish.

• Volume 10: The Ooorient Express: (June 2017) Jake takes a train in search of a cure for the sick Lady, but violent events break out on board the train itself.

• Volume 11: Princess and Princess: (February 2018) Finn is persuaded to impersonate Rock Princess, when she temporarily leaves her kingdom on a mysterious errand.

• Volume 12: Thunder Road: (June 2018) A storm that threatens to destroy the Candy Kingdom turns out to be caused by some cloud outlaw bikers. When Princess Bubblegum challenges them to a race, she and Marceline disagree over tactics.

• Volume 13: Marceline the Pirate Queen: (February 2019) When a gang of pirates steal a treasure from Princess Bubblegum, Marceline takes to the high seas to retrieve it.

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The graphic novels have the following tropes.

Vol 1: Playing With Fire

• Berserk Button: Bringing up her childhood or calling her "sweetheart" are ones for Flame Princess
• The Big Damn Kiss: Flame Princess and Finn's soul
• Call-Back:
  • Flame Princess mentions her and Finn's dungeon adventure from "Vault of Bones"
  • Choose Goose shows up in the dungeon as part of one of the puzzles.
  • Flame King tries once again to convince his daughter to turn his daughter back to evil.
• Cutting the Knot: Deconstructed. Flame Princess does this after getting fed up with the first Puzzle in the Dragon's Puzzle Dungeon and proceeds to blast her way through the dungeon until she ends up in a chamber with a waterfall. Jake then proceeds to point out that blasting your way out of a puzzle only creates a series of endless puzzle rooms until you take the time to solve one properly.
• A Day in the Limelight: For Flame Princess
• Disproportionate Retribution: Flame Princess responds to the man at the Swords and Surf game calling her sweetheart by trying to set him on fire.
• Distressed Dude: This time, it is Finn who gets kidnapped and Flame Princess end up having to team up with Jake in order to save him.
• Empty Shell: Soulless Finn ends up like this.
• Evil Feels Good: Flame King believes this
• Good Feels Good: Helping Finn return all the people the Dragon kidnapped to their homes not only makes Flame Princess realize just why Finn does what he does, but also makes her hope she can be good in the future.
• The Load: Soulless Finn. He cares about nothing and is too lazy to do much of anything, considering doing anything at all too much effort.
• The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: Flame Princess's dream at the end of seeing her evil self as a reflection in a pool of water.
• No Fair Cheating: Called out on Flame Princess by Jake as her solution to everything is using fire. Eventually she comes across portions of the dungeon her powers can't solve and ultimately has to learn to play by the rules if she wishes to save Finn.
• Stock Video Game Puzzle:An inverted version of the Lock and Key puzzle is used, paired with a riddle. Flame Princess is given the key from the getgo, but has to find the right lock for it. As it turns out the lock isn't any of the ones she's presented with, but one on the back of Choose Goose's head.
• Too Dumb to Live: When Flame Princess and Jake get to a cave with water inside, Jake tells Flame Princess to wait on the surface so he can solve the underwater puzzle. But an impatient Flame Princess refuses to take orders from Jake so she (who's made out of FIRE) jumps in the water and nearly dies. She would have been dead if she had not "willed" herself to the fire kingdom.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: The dragon turns out to have kidnapped peoples' souls and placed them in cells that can only be opened by love, because it couldn't feel love itself and wanted to experience it via empathy.

Vol 2: Pixel Princesses

• Alpha Bitch: Before Princess Day, this comic was the main showcase of Breakfast Princess's attitude. Needless to say it doesn't help the princesses' situation.
• Black Comedy Animal Cruelty: Skeleton Princess slaying the Killer Rabbits is played for very dark laughs.
• Blunt "Yes": When BMO asks if it's true he can't be a princess, Breakfast Princess answers with this.
• Button Mashing: Turtle Princess when she's forced to play a sky pilot game and is told to just hit everything to win. BMO's encouragement helps.
• A Day in the Limelight: Stars some of the less prominent princesses in the series.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: LSP forces the other princesses to admit that Turtle Princess was the only one who actually wanted to come to her party.
• Gory Discretion Shot: When the others can't bear to bring themselves to kill the cute animals in order to proceed. Skeleton Princess offers to do it as she is "dead inside". We see the others' reactions as she cuts the animals up with a sword.
• Heroic BSoD: LSP gets this when Breakfast Princess blows up at her for nearly getting them killed or rushing ahead without them. It takes some words from BMO to snap her out of it.
• Hidden Depths: LSP turns out to be a wiz at geometric puzzle games, which ends up saving the others in the final level.
• It May Help You on Your Quest: LSP's doorknob and Muscle Princess's screwdriver.
• Jackass Genie: Magic Man typically really twists BMO's request in order to cause trouble.
• Karma Houdini: As usual, Magic Man causes all the problems and gets away without any consequences.
• Killer Rabbit: At one point the princesses come upon a stage that seems to only have cute creatures within it. But once they try to approach them the creatures turn monstrous and attack.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Pancakes!
• Ninja Maid: The princesses first find themselves in a Donkey Kong clone where the Donkey Kong equivalent is a giant Ninja Maid.
• Race Against the Clock: BMO suggests that the princesses must escape by the time his battery runs down or else they might die. Subverted since it turns out she was just messing with them, and plugged himself into a power socket.
• Rhetorical Request Blunder: BMO expresses a desire to know what it's like to be a princess inside. Unfortunately, Magic Man is camping nearby.
• Squick: The in-universe reaction of the others when LSP pushes the star back into her head without bothering to brush the mud and twigs off it.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Embryo Princess guilt-trips the frog into ignoring game logic and just giving her the right item out of three.
• Win to Exit: The only way out of BMO is to beat the games and save the princesses (i.e themselves).
• Your Head A-Splode: Breakfast Princess manages to beat one of the levels this way by making pancakes for a group of warriors that were attacking them. They chow down on them and their heads explode because they're just that good.

Vol 3: Seeing Red

• Basement-Dweller: Svitz is portrayed as this.
• Continuity Nod:
  • When visiting a rock concert, the bouncer recognizes Marcie as the Scream Queen.
  • Yet another quest that involves a visit to a witch for Marcie. Though Adeline is at least nicer then Maja.
• A Day in the Limelight: Marceline and Jake this go-around.
• Did They or Didn't They?: Jake's farewell to the bellhop at the hotel can be interpreted as either trying to explain why Jake can't do anything with him, or trying to explain that it was just a one-night stand.
• Fanboy: Ricky is an embarrassing fanboy of Marceline.
• High-Class Glass: Svitz wears monocles on two of his four eyes.
• Ironic Echo:
  Marcie: (after she's beaten) You cheated!
  Adeline: My house, my rules.
  (and later)
  Adeline: (after she has been beaten) Y-You cheated!
  Jake: Nah, I just played by your rules.
• It's the Journey That Counts: Parodied in Lumpy Space Princess's back-up story, where she quests for the world's coolest handbag, only to find out at the end that the handbag was never real and she was meant to realise that she didn't need it to be cool. She angrily insists that she knows she's cool, but she wanted the handbag to impress people without having to make an effort.
• Jaw Drop: After Jake beats Adeline, the latter does this.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Hunson compared to the previous rulers of the Nightosphere, according to Marceline.
• Mathematician's Answer: When the pair visit the pawn shop and sneak their way in.
  Jake: (To Marcie) Wait a sec, how did you get in here?
  Marceline: I turned into a bug and crawled under the door.
  Svitz: How did you both get in here?
  Jake / Marcie: Magic
• Mistaken for Gay: Jake arrives at the punk club in a black leather jacket, shades and a moustache, and it's implied that he thinks that the bouncer called him a "Scream Queen" after mistaking him for a gay Leather Man. Marceline subsequently jokes that she told the bouncer he was a hairdresser.
• Opening Shout-Out: The first panels◊, in which we see through Jake's eyes as he surprises Marceline and she snarls at him in shock, replicate Marcie's appearance in the opening sequence of the TV show.
• Pass the Popcorn: Jake and Rick when Marcie explains the guitar's origins.
• Poor Communication Kills: Hunson as usual. Turns out he sold the guitar in secret because he wanted to give Marcie a new one as a surprise gift. While touched by the gesture, she refuses because the original axe was so emotionally important to both of them, as the magic weapon he used to take over the Nightosphere and them turned into a musical instrument for his daughter. That said, Marcie forgives him and the two jam out on both guitars for the talent show.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: When the pair visit Adeline to find out where the guitar is. Adeline, who normally arm-wrestles for things (and remembers how strong Marcie is) challenges her to a tennis match. She cheats by using a power up to win, citing this rule. However, it gets turned around on her when Jake takes over.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Svitz refers to Jake and Marceline as a "young couple", to Marceline's disgust.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Marcie (and later Jake) and Adeline do their tennis match, the art is depicted like a Pong game.
  • Hunson's armour in the tale of how he took over the Nightosphere is based on that worn by Dracula in the medieval scenes of Bram Stoker's Dracula.
  • The guitar Hunson made for Marceline looks like a goth version of Bo Diddley's trade mark "cigar box" guitar.
• Stalker with a Crush: The bellhop at the hotel Jake stays in.

Vol. 4: Bitter Sweets

• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Peppermint Butler's supply list:
  Peppermint Butler: Food, clothing, water, dark magic, coins, games, scientific equipment, syrup.
• Continuity Nod:
  • At the beginning, Princess Bubblegum is wearing the heavy metal T-shirt Marceline gave her.
  • Princess Bubblegum's hyper-intelligent rat Science makes further appearances in this story.
• The Corrupter: King Chard to the Sea Kingdom royal family.
• Cliffhanger: The comic ends with Peppermint Butler and Cinnamon Bun about to participate in some unknown ritual.
• Fanservice Pack: For the cover◊. PB usually isn't one for a corset and heels.
• Henpecked Husband: King Chard, although he deserves it since he's a terrible person.
• I Did What I Had to Do: King Chard's justification for stealing the Sacred Hollow's magic to rebuild the Sea and Vegetable kingdoms.
• Kill It with Fire: Peppermint Butler's response to all the revelations of dubious behaviour.
• The Lad-ette: Princess Fern, a bit:
  Prince Okra: So, um... you want to dance?
  Princess Fern: Nope. Not ever. Terrible dancer.
  Prince Okra: Oh. Okay.
  Princess Fern: You want to enchant some rocks and make them fight?
• Oh, Crap!: The response of the Sea Prince and Princess to the appearance of a pissed-off Bubblegum and Fern at their gates.
• Plot Coupon: The various gems.
• Power Armour: Used by the Sea Kingdom royalty to visit the Candy Kingdom.
• Psycho Sidekick: Peppermint Butler is unambiguously this to Princess Bubblegum in this story.
  Peppermint Butler: Princess, I always want to burn everything. You, however, have responsibilities. And friends.
• Sophisticated as Hell: Princess Bubblegum shows this regularly, as usual, but especially when she turns up at the Vegetable Kingdom to call them out for their bad behaviour.
  Princess Bubblegum: Your Royal Highnesses! I've got beef.
• Teach Him Anger: Princess Bubblegum has to do this to Princess Fern to allow her to respond to the other kingdoms' exploitation of hers.

Vol. 5: Graybles Schmaybles

• As You Know: Lampshaded at Princess Princess Princess's party:
  First Guest: Oh, I can't wait for Princess Princess Princess's Polka-Haunt-Us Flower to bloom! You know it only blooms once every 500 years!
  Second Guest: Yeah. I know. That's kind of the whole reason we're here.
  First Guest: Well, I though I'd say it out loud, in case anyone was wondering what the occasion is!
• Call-Back: Lorraine the chicken from "BMO Noire" reappears, and BMO is still wrongly suspicious of her.
• Continuity Nod: References to BMO's games in mirrors from several previous episodes.
• Justified Criminal: The Cosmic Shape Ball is stealing things of different shapes so that it can get back home to Cuber's time.
• Lockdown: Ice King has finally fitted his castle with a scarily intense lockdown mode.
• Make-Out Kids: Finn and Jake are still squicked out by Tree Trunks and Mr. Pig getting affectionate.
• Pensieve Flashback: The cube puts Finn and Jake into these.
• Running Gag: The running joke that nobody actually wants the star from LSP's head reappears.
• Super-Speed: The thief is too fast to be seen as other than a blur.
• Take That!: Much fun is had with Lumpy Space Princess playing baseball in the hope that a hot vampire will court her.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Finn and Jake are completely unfazed by the cube putting them into women's clothing when it sends them to Princess Princess Princess's tea party.
• Word, Schmord!: The title of Vol. 5, "Graybles Schmaybles" is an example.

Vol. 6: Masked Mayhem

• Ballroom Blitz: The story is based around a series of prank attacks against fancy dress parties thrown on Ooo's "Masquerade Day".
• Berserk Button: LSP is not happy when BMO calls her "doll-face".
• Call-Back: BMO engages in the same detective masquerade as in "BMO Noire", including an appearance from Ronnie the Rat.
• Classical Movie Vampire: Marceline dresses as a male one as her fancy dress.
• Costume-Test Montage: Jake tries out various fancy-dress costumes on BMO before settling on a "detective" one.
• Dresses the Same: Subverted when LSP and Melissa coincidentally wear identical fancy dress costumes, but don't get angry about it.
• Dude, Not Funny!: Jake's in-universe reaction when Marceline scares him with a cardboard cut-out of the Lich.
• Everybody Did It: All the on-page prank attacks were unconnected, and one wasn't even malicious. When Princess Bubblegum challenges the people of Ooo to find out if any of them weren't pranking that day, Mr. Pig is the only one who turns out to be innocent.
• Fair-Play Whodunnit: All the clues are fairly shown on panel at the time.
• Lights Off, Somebody Dies: Parodied at PB's ball, when Cinnamon Bun turns out the lights to steal all the cakes.
• Love Triangle: Between LSP, Melissa, and Brad.
• Masquerade Ball: Princess Bubblegum's ball at the end.
• One-Person Birthday Party: Jake and BMO are the only people who turn up to Ice King's failed party.
• Private Eye Monologue: BMO lapses into this throughout.
• Produce Pelting: Ice King's palace gets egged, and Marcie gets a pie in the face.
• Seashell Bra: Both LSP and Melissa dress as mermaids, with Seashell Bras.
• Shout-Out: Finn comes to PB's party dressed as Mega Man.
• Toilet Paper Prank: LSP's party gets pelted with toilet rolls.
• Wild Teen Party: LSP's party, to match the usual theme of Lumpy Space people mostly being over-dramatic teenagers.

Vol. 7: The Four Castles

• Action Prologue: At the beginning, Finn and Jake are fighting a Gelatinous Cube-like Blob Monster in the form of a giant serpent.
• Baddie Flattery: The Guildmaster ends up complementing BMO for their heroism, although she then throws in a verbal jab at the end.
• Continuity Nod: The villains who the Guildmaster invites to party at the Tree Fort include the King of Ooo, the evil Tree Witch from "To Cut A Woman's Hair", and the Squeeze-E-Mart employee from "One Last Job".
• Downer Ending: Finn and Jake end up doing hard labor in a Candy Kingdom prison for robbery.
• Dracolich: An undead dragon owns the magic earring, and turns out to be a friend of Skeleton Princess and not actually evil.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Muscle Princess's approach to leading an exercise class.
• Fastball Special: Finn really wants to do this to the Gelatinous Serpent, but Jake isn't really into it and misses.
• I Have Your Wife: The Guildmaster finally outright threatens Jake to try to get Finn to steal the final artifact.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Deconstructed. Finn and Jake are tricked into robbing people for artifacts by a villain, and end up earning the contempt of several of their friends for it.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: BMO rips one of their arms off to escape from being trapped in Finn's sofa, although they can easily reattach it.
• Missing Reflection: Subverted with the Phantasmal Looking Glass, which is a hand mirror that can reflect poltergeists and vampires so that they can see what they look like.
• Smoke Bomb: How the Guildmaster gets away from her enemies.
• Source Music: The Guildmaster carries speakers and a music player to accompany her commercial jingle.
• Treacherous Quest Giver: The Guildmaster is actually from a Thieves' Guild and is simply manipulating Finn and Jake into stealing things for her.
• Walking Spoiler: The explanation for all the spoiler code in this section - the Guildmaster is evil.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Finn and Jake get progressively more extreme versions of this from various characters as they rob artifacts from people.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Finn and Jake end up in Candy Prison for thinking that as a "hero" you have the right to just go around robbing people.

Vol. 8: President Bubblegum

• Achilles in His Tent: PB initially refrains from running as president, seeking a quiet life, until things get so bad that Peppermint Butler runs.
• Bait-and-Switch: The initial captions suggest that the duo exploring a dungeon are Finn and Jake as usual, but it's then revealed to be the King of Ooo and Toronto.
• Booby Trap: BMO as returning officer realised that Toronto would try to steal a ballot box, and put a bomb in it.
• Call-Back: The King of Ooo is seeking revenge on Princess Bubblegum following the events of the TV episode "The Dark Cloud", having seemingly regained his normal shape and stature.
• Democracy Is Flawed: PB discovers that as President she's held responsible for everyone but nobody is willing to help her. She gets a final speech about how even though she's ruling as Princess again everyone has to pull together to solve problems.
• Dressed in Layers: PB rips her princess dress off Superman-style to reveal the rainbow-coloured business suit she wears as President of Ooo.
• Eldritch Abomination: The activation of the Constitoootion creates one known as the Shadow President.
• Evil Knockoff: The Shadow President finally assumes PB's form.
• Flipping the Table: PB does this after the first attempt to kill her.
• His Name Is...: The Animated Armour is destroyed just as he's about to tell Finn who might have stolen the weapons.
• Homage: The opening scene of the King of Ooo and Toronto exploring a tomb contains obvious references to Indiana Jones.
• Homoerotic Subtext: Just after Marceline tells PB that she "just wants to make you mad", their facial expressions get very flirtatious.
• Lamprey Mouth: The Shadow President has one to make it even more scary.
• Major Injury Underreaction: A fungus person gets chopped in half and responds with an annoyed "Ow".
• Ripped from the Headlines: Released to coincide with the 2016 USA elections. Additionally, Princess Bubblegum and Lumpy Space Princess here have parodic overtones of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Donald Trump respectively.
• Sedgwick Speech: A fungus person gives an inspiring speech about attacking the Shadow President and promptly gets chopped in half.
• Transformation Sequence: PB does a stereotypical magical girl transformation to change from her presidential suit back to her princess dress.

Vol. 9: Brain Robbers

• All Webbed Up: Mr. Pig's fate at the end courtesy of the baby spiders.
• Always Identical Twins: Averted, as the Zombie Twins are mixed-gender fraternal.
• Bad Guy Bar: The incredibly sleazy and violent Dead End Saloon.
• Badly Battered Babysitter: Happens to Finn, BMO, and Jake at the beginning, when Sweet P's tantrum becomes Lich-powered.
• Bar Brawl: Breaks out when the Guildmaster recognises Finn and Jake from the last-but-one novel.
• Commitment Issues: Lumpy Space Princess panicked when Cameron the Zombie Twin tried to persuade her to settle down with him and farm tarantulas.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: When Sweet P is in full Lich mode, a few words from Tree Trunks can calm him down and shame him.
• Former Teen Rebel: The novel's various hints about what Tree Trunks got up to in the Badlands when she was a young woman.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: LSP uses Tree Trunks as a weapon to beat the Zombie Twins.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Finn decapitating the Zombie Twins at the worst possible moment.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The Zombie Twins are Wild West outlaw zombies.
• One-Sided Arm-Wrestling: Tree Trunks versus the Guildmaster.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Finn survives for a long time with his entire brain removed, although in a mindless state.
• Source Music: The Guildmaster is still carrying her own speakers and backing tapes.
• Track Trouble: When Jake accidentally starts the train that the Zombie Twins are using as a hideout, the tracks inevitably lead to a canyon with a defunct bridge.
• Vanity License Plate: Lumpy Space Princess's dune buggy has "INGENUE" plates.

Islands

• Action Girl: Jo eventually grows into one as she learns how to survive in the wilderness of the Island.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Jo's final break with Tom over his paranoia and hostility to the natural environment.
• Catapult Nightmare: Jo's nightmare of being attacked by a snake at the beginning.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Jo's dream of the snake is fulfilled at the end.
• Face Your Fears: When Jo finally confronts the snake that has haunted her dreams, it turns out to be easily intimidated and not dangerous.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: A story set deep in Ooo's history and with no recurring characters except Marceline.
• Generation Xerox: Jo's relationship with her guardian Tom is very similar to that between child Marceline and pre-madness Simon Petrikov.
• Helpful Hallucination: An imaginary Marceline guides and encourages Jo on her trip through the forest.
• Kidnapping Bird of Prey: The second part of the story has Jo trying to find her way back to the colony through a forest, after being kidnapped by a giant bird.
• The Migration: Jo's group of people are fleeing an infestation of vampires in the main continent of Ooo.

Vol. 10: The Ooorient Express

• Artistic License – Biology: Parodied when Shelby, an invertebrate, talks about having rheumatoid arthritis.
• Attack of the Killer Whatever: A demon train that feeds on human souls.
• Bystander Syndrome: The goose railwayman admits to Jake that he knows something is sinister but is too apathetic to do anything about it. He promptly suffers a Karmic Death.
• Clear My Name: Jake is falsely accused of killing the first victim.
• Demonic Possession: The guard and the other train staff are possessed by spider-demons and transform into them when the train needs them as servants.
• Detective Mole: The guard who initially investigates the murders is actually the leader of the train's servants.
• Dramatic Pause: Parodied when Jake pauses so long when he's worried that the train might be haunted that he's already on board when he's finished the sentence.
• Holy Burns Evil: The Salesman's potions corrode the fabric of the train like Hollywood Acid not because they're poisonous, but because they are good magic and it is saturated by evil.
• Obviously Evil: The evil train has a skull front and a ribcage around its boiler.
• Police Are Useless: The two cops who board the train have no idea what to do in the face of supernatural evil.
• Red Herring: The Salesman initially appears villainous, but is actually a good guy.
• Sneeze of Doom: Princess Bubblegum is blasted out of the hospital ward by Lady's sneeze.
• Thriller on the Express: Takes place almost entirely on the train.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The story is basically a PG-rated version of the well-known (very gruesome) short horror story "Lonely Train A'Comin'" by William F Nolan.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Trapped alone on the engine of the haunted train, the possessed guard is implied to be eaten by it.

Vol. 11: Princess and Princess

• Emergency Impersonation: Finn impersonates Rock Princess so she can have some time off ruling.
• The End... Or Is It?: Rock Princess goes off adventuring with Finn and Jake, leaving the Obviously Evil Obsidian Door to cover for her this time.
• Holographic Disguise: Rock Princess enchants her tiara to make Finn appear to be her.
• Human Pincushion: Parodied when the Rock soldier stumbles into the council chamber covered with lollipops.
• Politicians Kiss Babies: Part of Finn's daily round as Rock Princess.
• Poor Communication Kills: The war breaks out because Princess Bubblegum, at the top of her tower, and the Rock Kingdom Chancellor, on the ground, can't hear what each other are saying and each think that the other is threatening them.
• Prevent the War: Finn has to try to stop a war between the Rock and Candy Kingdoms.
• Puppet King: Rock Princess is upset that her council simply use her as a figurehead and won't let her make any decisions.
• Three-Point Landing: Rock Princess does one after jumping from Princess Bubblegum's tower.
• Women Are Wiser: Rock Princess and Princess Bubblegum sort out the whole river dispute in a brief conversation as soon as they come face to face, and complain about how the men on the council immediately turned to violence.

Vol. 12: Thunder Road

• All Bikers are Hells Angels: The bikers are generally socially irresponsible, although only Trevor is really nasty.
• The Big Race: Between the bikers and PB.
• Covers Always Lie: The cover, showing Marceline standing on top of a pile of defeated monsters and blushing, has nothing to do with the plot at all. The blurb also has little resemblance to the actual plot, apart from involving Marceline, PB, and the cloud bikers.
• Embarrassing First Name: Marceline mocks Trevor for his unimpressive name.
• False Friend: Marceline sabotages the bikers' bikes, to PB's outrage when she gets caught.
• Forgot About His Powers: A two-person example, when Marceline rides her bike over a cliff, PB dives after her, forgetting that Marceline can fly, and has to be rescued herself.
• The Great Flood: Affecting the area around the Candy Kingdom, and nearly dissolving it, due to the cloud bikers.
• Jerkass: Trevor, the lead biker, takes obvious pleasure in inconveniencing people.
• Non-Mammal Mammaries: One of the female cloud bikers has a bosom. The other doesn't.
• Shout-Out: The title, to either the film Thunder Road, or the song inspired by it by Bruce Springsteen.
• Solid Clouds: The clouds are solid, and both the bikers and the bikes are made out of them.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Marceline has four different costumes in the book.

Vol. 13: Marceline the Pirate Queen

• The Cameo: Lumpy Space Princess briefly appears in the cave system.
• Covers Always Lie: The cover shows Marceline fighting a sea monster with Finn and Jake, neither of whom appear at all in the book.
• Death Glare: PB maintains one over three panels and an implied lengthy period of time after the pirates escape.
• Dungeon Bypass: Marceline simply flies over the maze full of monsters.
• Gravity Screw: Marceline and BMO encounter a swamp in the caves with inverted gravity.
• Inherently Funny Words: Marceline and BMO both giggle at "poop deck".
• Literal-Minded: Pirate ghosts challenge Marceline and BMO to literally buckle some swashes of cloth.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": The pirates' response when Marceline finally loses patience with them and goes into demon-kaiju mode.
• MockGuffin: Subverted. The treasure turns out to be PB's hair-tie. Marceline is initially shocked and thinks it's worthless, but PB then explains that it's a unique one she spent months creating so that it wouldn't cut through her gum hair.
• No Shirt, Long Jacket: The pirate captain constantly wears an open coat over his shirtless muscular torso.
• Obfuscating Disability: The pirate captain has the inevitable eye-patch, but one panel reveals that he has an eye underneath it.
• Stink Bomb: The pirates fire one at Marceline.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Marceline has to deal with the pirates because Finn is scared of water, and candy citizens dissolve in it.

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