A story of a man and his dog: Conan the Barbarian Style!
An Eisner Award-winning fantasy webcomic that is both a parody and loving homage to the Sword and Sorcery genre. What makes it notable is that the sidekick of the main character is a giant pug.
Held high in the tower of a city straight out of 1001 Arabian Nights, a beautiful (and very naked) girl named Moll spends her days telling stories to her only companions, a pair of dogs. One day she tells the story of a warrior on a quest for revenge and his companion, the Battlepug ...
The series ended in 2016 but got a sequel published by Image Comics in 2019.
This series provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Black Sasha, who the Kinmundian admits is the finest warrior he's ever met.
- All Your Powers Combined: Zurn uses the Seeing Pool at Metamora to combine bodies with Catwulf and form a massive demon wielding a Flaming Sword. The Warrior, Shale and Bryony then combine their powers to transform the Battlepug into a massive version of itself composed of rock and vines.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Most of the creatures in the comic are basically just giant-sized versions of real animals, including giant seals, eagles, spiders, mole rats and the titular Battlepug.
- Bad Santa: After the destruction of his tribe, the Warrior is taken by elves to the Kingdom of the Northlands, which is ruled over by a fat man with a white beard and red suit. But this Santa is no jolly elf; instead, he has the boy over a decade toiling as a slave and fighting as a gladiator in death matches.
- Barbarian Hero: The Warrior. He's a huge black-maned, furry loincloth-wearing Expy of Conan and hails from the primitive Kinmundian tribe.
- Blue Oni, Red Oni: Mingo and Colfax, respectively.
- Bond Creatures: The Battlepug. The Warrior has innate magical talent which attracted a giant dog to be his companion.
- Canis Major: The Battlepug is a dog gigantic enough that a huge barbarian can barely sit on his neck.
- Clingy Macguffin: Jangles the Lesser was a bard who put on a cursed suit of armour that he cannot remove. The curse is at least partially lifted when he performs a heroic act, shielding Bryony from a Rain of Arrows with his body.
- Complete Immortality: After drinking from the Seeing Pool, Black Sansa has this, provided she never leaves the cave where the pool is located. Outside of the cave, she can be killed by a single scratch.
- Also the fate of Jangles the Lesser.
- Cuteness Proximity: Bryony is only prevented from killing the Warrior and the old man after she notices the nearby Battlepug and starts screaming "PUPPY!"
- Dem Bones: The Dead Walker uses rock magic to control an army of skeletons and one giant skullmonkey.
- Disappeared Dad: The hero's father, Kolono, went missing on a hunting trip. He later shows up as the new Pirate King and is in league with Catwulf. He reveals to the hero that he had intentionally abandoned his family and told Catwulf where he could find the Kinmundian tribe, making him partially responsible for its destruction.
- Doomed Hometown: The Kinmundian tribe of the Warrior is destroyed by a giant baby seal controlled by the villain Catwulf.
- Bryony's hometown of Leahman is also destroyed by traitors in league with Catwulf.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Everyone calls The Warrior "The Warrior" or "The Kinmundian". Kolono only calls him "Son"
- Functional Magic: There are essentially three kinds of magic-users in this universe: beast mages, plant mages and rock mages. The Warrior and Catwulf are examples of the first kind, Bryony is the second kind and Shale is an example of the third type.
- Girl in the Tower: As the story unfolds, it is becoming more evident that Moll is this trope, as the chamber she resides has no doors.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: The Warrior uses Jangles as a club at one point. Well, it's not like he can be hurt.
- Grim Up North: Where the Warrior and his people, the Kinmundian tribe, hail from. Unlike the usual depiction of fantasy barbarians being Celts or Norse, the Kinmundian are expies of the Eskimo and their far north is more along the lines of the North Pole rather than Scandinavia.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Catwulf does this to the Kinmundian in the final arc. He gets better, though.
- Jerkass: The Dead Walker.
- And Colfax.
- Last of His Kind: The Warrior is the last Kinmundian. Though technically he wasn't until he killed Kolono.
- Man Behind the Man: Zurn appears to be this to Catwulf.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Dead Walker bears a slight resemblance to The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman.
- Only Known By His Nickname: The Warrior. Kolono and (presumably) Moll know his real name but never use it.
- Rolling Pin of Doom: the only weapon Leighmin can offer the Warrior as the latter heads off into a pirate den.
- Talking Animal: Colfax and Mingo, Moll's canine companions.
- There Can Be Only One: Essentially the focus of Catwulf's Evil Plan. Magic is finite and shared by all the mages of the world, so if he kills all the other mages, he will alone control magic and be able to shape reality to his whims.
- The Reveal: The old man is revealed to be Callistus the Pirate King, and the hero's father is revealed to be in league with Catwulf.
- The Worm That Walks; The Warrior briefly encounters one such creature made out of gophers.
- Unknown Rival: Catwulf has no idea who the hero is when they first meet.
- Verbal Tic: The old man the hero meets in the swamp village of Patoka, who peppers his dialogue with the words "Scribbly" and "Scrabbly."
- Walking Shirtless Scene: The Kinmundian. After he beats up a thug for his armour, Moll notes that it is the first time he has worn pants since he was a child.
