Ironwood is an erotic comic book series written and drawn by Bill Willingham in the 1990s, published in the United States by Eros Comix. It ran for 11 issues. The series was collected into two trade paperbacks.
Ironwood follows the adventures of Dave Dragavon, a juvenile dragon existing only in human form (not yet having matured enough to take full dragon form) who is hired by the beautiful Pandora Breedlswight to find the wizard Gnaric in order to free her from a curse.
The comics are a mixture of Sword and Sorcery and adult humor.
Ironwood contains examples of:
- The Bad Guy Wins: Or at least gets what he was after, even if all it did was prove that his dead "true love" (aka the girl he stalked in wizard school) didn't remember him.
- Bathtub Mermaid: Ignagio Pec has a mermaid living his hot tub as part of his harem.
- Caught in a Snare: the series opens with Dave Dragavon hanging upside down; caught in a snare with a boulder tied around his neck. He has been hanging there for three days by the time Pandora locates him.
- Crossover: Fantasia Faust originally appeared in Willingham's superhero comic Elementals as did Dave.
- Cute Monster Girl: Fantasia Faust, as well as several minor characters like Tif, the first mate of Pandora's ship.
- Deus Sex Machina: Once summoned, demon Hugo Wormfire cannot be returned to Hell until he has been satisfied sexually.
- Direct Line to the Author: According to the introduction Bill Willingham didn't write this story. He cheated Dragavon out of his story rights on Earth. The final scene of the series also adds a very healthy dose of Unreliable Narrator.
- Exotic Equipment: Sir Hugo in his second appearance. Ignagio Pec doesn't usually have it but he finds a ... unique use for a hydra's head spell.
- Golem: Fantasia Faust
- George Lucas Altered Version: A sex scene involving Tif, a female crew mate, and a cheap bottle of djinn was added to the first trade paperback; the art style is subtly different, due to being drawn years later, and it interrupts (and slightly improves) a sight gag involving Fantasia dealing with a snake attack.
- Kissing Under the Influence: The object of the young Sulimon Canto's affection winds up kissing (and more) her lamia roommate while under the effect of Canto's Love Potion.
- Love Potion: As a student, Suliman Canto slipped a love potion disguised as perfume to the object of his affections. His plan backfired when she ended up having sex with her half-snake female roommate.
- Male-to-Female Universal Adaptor: Although here it is mostly a case of the female genitalia of the fantasy races being compatible with human male equipment. The males occasionally have trouble finding the right spot but, once they do, there are no problems doing the deed.
- The Man They Couldn't Hang: The story opens with Dave Dragavon hanging upside down from a tree with a rock tied around his neck. He has been like this for three days. Upon being released, he treats the whole incident as no more than a minor inconvenience (aside from a burning need to pee).
- Mars Needs Women: Dragons are all male, or more precisely asexual in their natural forms and shapeshift into human males in order to seduce human women for the perpetuation of the species. Apparently they enjoy this so much, the rest of their time is mostly spent hunting down most dragon-offspring they can find to prevent extreme overpopulation.
- Mermaid Problem: A lamia reveals why this isn't really a problem in Ironwood.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: What first mate Tif became once her skin was disintegrated.
- Multi-Armed Multitasking: Tif makes full use of all four of her hands while having a threesome with a djinn and a crewmate.
- Porn with Plot: Ironwood combines a standard fantasy quest storyline with hardcore sex. The writer Bill Willingham even commented that, at times, it was hard to insert each issue's obligatory sex scene without breaking the flow of the story.
- Power Perversion Potential: Ignagio Pec finds a ... unique use for a hydra's head spell, allowing him to pleasure multiple females at once.
- Rip Van Tinkle: Ironwood begins with Dave being rescued after spending three days hanging upside down in a snare with a boulder tied around his neck. His first act on being rescued is to dart into the bushes to empty his bladder. That he was able to hold it in for three days is the first indication that Dave is not normal.
- Robo Sexual: If golems count as robots, then Pandora Breedlswight's relationship with Fantasia makes her one.
- Sex Bot: Fantasia Faust is an iron golem. After serving her creator's original purpose of ridding his land of faeries, he found other uses for her, including as a lover. She is enchanted with illusions so complete that a person can be ravaged by Fantasia without ever realizing that she isn't made entirely of soft, warm, forgiving flesh, and subtle but effective neuromancies to entice anything with a steady pulse to desire her.
- Snakes Are Sexy: In one flashback a young Sulimon Canto tried giving a love potion to a cold older student whom he loved. It didn't work quite as expected — she instead had sex with her half-snake female roommate. Because "this body of yours is very phallic" and "size does matter".
- Stripped to the Bone: Happens to Tif.
- Two-Person Pool Party: Bishop-Major Simon Passover has sex with a mother and daughter at the same time in a sunken bath.
- Weredragon: All dragons can take human form and actually need to do so in order to breed. Dragons are asexual but assume the form of human males in order to procreate with human females. Offspring of these unions are born human and remain in human form (albeit much tougher than an ordinary human) until they reach maturity.
- You Must Be Cold: When Pandora rescues Dave from being Caught in a Snare in #1, he is completely naked. Looking to give him something to cover himself with, Pandora starts to remove her shirt. Dave, being the incorrigible horndog that he is, misconstrues this as an offer of sex and ends up having sex. Pandora goes along with this because she needs his services and bribing him with sex seems an effective way as any to secure them.
