LinT
is a long-running comedic fantasy webcomic drawn and written by Colby Purcell.
The story is a humorous take on the fantasy genre, focusing on the off the wall adventures of Sangwine, an exiled elven prince, and his somewhat dysfunctional group of companions on a quest to free the kingdom of Schloeffelonia from Sangwine's evil brother - Fang, Overlord of Darkness.
The comic began as a light-hearted comedy based story but eventually developed to have a more dramatic and plot-driven storyline, with the occasional throw-back to earlier wacky-style humour.
LinT was completed in January 2010. Purcell has since launched and finished a new comic, Pygmalion in Space, as well as the aptly named sequel to LinT, Lintier.
This comic provides examples of:
- All There in the Manual: The creator has written several supplimentary novels detailing the backstory of the cast, with another one currently in progress.
- Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Most of the elves have to get pushed pretty far before they will even consider violence against their own kind. In fact, Fang's murder of the human gambler in the bar is the first murder in the elven kingdom that anyone can remember.
- Zedwig seems especially traumatized by all the killing of other elves (as opposed to any humans) Fang has forced him to do.
- Art Evolution: The comic began with roughly drawn pencil sketches, and ended with beautiful full-colour artwork.
- Black Magic: Zedwig is constantly on the verge of death (and burning through healers at a deadly rate) due to his overuse of destructive magic under Fang's control.
- An unfortunate side effect of this is that any healer working to heal this mystic damage has to Cast from Hit Points and almost always ends up dead as a result.
- Cain and Abel: There's plenty of enmity between Sangwine and his brother Fang, who killed his entire family and attempted to orchestrate Sangwine's death on his way to becoming an Evil Overlord.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Gradual, but after the completion of the MD-CM Quest, the humorous tongue-in-cheek tone of many early comics had pretty much disappeared in favor of Character Development and the unfolding (back)story of Sangwine and his lost kingdom. Most noticeable perhaps in the transition of Xylic from the Cloudcuckoolander thief with a sock fetish to a withdrawn and sometimes downright sullen master archer (who occasionally picks locks).
- Damsel in Distress: Bactine is simply outraged to find herself in this position towards the end of the comic and with a little help from a surprising source manages to subvert it by breaking out on her own to go rescue Sangwine in his final showdown.
- Evil Overlord: Fang's mooks even refer to him as "Lord Overlord".
- Evil Prince: Fang invaded the kingdom and killed his family to come to power. The kicker? He was the eldest son and first in line to inherit it anyway.
- Heel–Face Turn: Al'bert has a change of heart after Fang turns on him and ends up helping Bactine escape from prison.
- Fake Defector: Geeves assisted Fang's rise to power, but only to give Sangwine a chance to escape.
- Freudian Excuse: Fang would have you believe that his mother's death in childbirth with Sangwine and their father's admiration for this younger son as he grew up justified/made-necessary his decision to become an Evil Prince and his hatred for his brother.
- Genius Bruiser: Derf once the curse is removed and he is able to communicate
- Heroic Sacrifice: Bactine sacrifices her life to save Sangwine from a gunshot wound
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Happens when Zedwig gets free of Fang's mind control and spirits him away, promising to make him suffer. What happens next is currently the subject of Colby's newest novel.
- Important Haircut: After murdering a man in a tavern, Fang goes to the "ultimate extreme" for an elf and chops off his own hair. Al?bert is also rather unhappy about getting one of these when Fang throws him in prison.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Xylic never tells Bactine how he really feels about her, presumably because he sees how she and Sangwine are in love (even if they don't realize it) and doesn't want to complicate things for Bactine (who thinks of him as a brother).
- Long-Lost Relative: Several characters suggest Xylic could be related to Sangwine in some way. Most fans agree that he is probably the son of Sangwine's aunt Ellinya. They're right.
- La Résistance: Upon his return, Sangwine is introduced to a secret rebel faction of elves who help him depose Fang.
- Love Triangle: Bactine and the various people who love her. Although she seems reluctant to admit it once it's pointed out to her.
- MacGuffin: Sangwine and company embark on the "Mystic Dragyn-Crystal Moon Quest" despite having no idea what it is. Turns out it's actually a trap set up by Al'bert and company.
- Meaningful Name: Bactine (the healer), Sangwine (the sanguine and level-headed leader), Stump (the enigmatic midget-dwarf remains a bit of a mystery even to the rest of the main party for the entire comic), Geeves (the butler), Al'bert du Fromage (a cheesy Affably Evil recurring minor villain).
- Mood Whiplash: One moment, we have an extremely dramatic scene where Zedwig brutally kills the leaders of the resistance, and the next moment, everyone's having a pleasant chat about bees.
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Not this one. Stump is a midget dwarf.
- Pretty Boy: Much of the cast are very pretty. This leads to an amusing incident when Fang's soldiers are able to identify Sangwine in a group of other elves because "He's prettier than the others!"
- Restraining Bolt: Fang's magical earring increases his natural abilities as an "amplifier" and allows him to control Zedwig.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: The comic is well known for its vocabulary.
- Story-Breaker Power: There isn't much beyond Zedwig's abilities. Unfortunately, this has allowed the villain to use him as a weapon to take over cities and forge an empire for himself.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: James is a fairy who can turn himself into a goose.
