Mayor Sidewinder (left) and Marshal Art (right)
Poison Ivy Gulch is a gag Western webcomic created by Max West and launched on June 1, 2020. The setting is in a ramshackle town somewhere in the American frontier of the 1870s. The eponymous town is home to Lotta Doler, a Professional Gambler plus her Kid Sidekick Ace and a load of other Western Characters.
Some (but not all) of the other characters are:
- Samuel Sidewinder, the town's mayor
- Marshal Art, the local lawman
- Herman the German, the hangman
- Rigg R. Mortis, mortician
- Pickaxe Paul, a local prospector
Updated on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with the sporadic Sunday Strip, the format is a gag per day in black and white panels much like Newspaper Comics.
Read it here
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This Webcomic Has The Following Tropes:
- Alliterative Name: Mayor Samuel Sidewinder, Pickaxe Paul
- Aluminum Christmas Trees: Women gamblers like Lotta did exist in the Old West! Some examples include Belle Ryan Cora, Eleanora Dumont and "Poker" Alice Ivers.
- Anachronism Stew: Some of the characters are shown chewing bubble gum. Bubble gum wasn't invented until 1928 but this is ignored due to the Rule of Funny.
- Bubblegum Popping: Both Ace and saloon girl Lorraine are shown blowing up big bubble gum bubbles which then burst leaving them Covered in Gunge.
- Carpet of Virility: Parodied here when a local hermit reveals his thick shirt isn't a shirt but body hair!
- Comically Missing the Point: A frequent device used for gags. A specific example includes a color Sunday Strip where a prostitute asks a passing cowboy if he wants to fool around. The cowboy, not understanding she means sex, asks her what she wants to fool around doing.
- Cumulonemesis: Parodied in this strip when local prospector Pickaxe Paul sees "threatening weather" in the form of a snarling cloud.
- Don't Eat and Swim: Discussed by Lotta when she and Ace go Skinny Dipping but Ace not quite understanding her.
- The Executioner: Herman the German, executing people by hanging. Here though, it's Played for Laughs.
- Eye-Obscuring Hat: Marshal Art wears one.
- Fiery Redhead: Downplayed with Lotta; she can fly off the handle at times but normally isn't short tempered.
- Gag Nose: Both Mayor Sidewinder and Rigg R. Mortis have very big, long noses.
- I'm a Humanitarian:
- In one strip, a hermit encounters Pickaxe Paul and says he only eats natural food by doing this.
- Parodied here when Mayor Sidewinder declines the merchant's lunch.
- In one strip, a hermit encounters
- Is It Something You Eat?: Inverted in the 12/7/2020 strip where Lotta asks Ace if he wants Hopping John for dinner. Ace mistakes this as a person's name; Hopping John is actually a dish from the Southern United States made with peas and rice.
- Frankenstein's Monster: Appears in the 6/24/2020 strip as a justice of the peace or, as the mayor describes him, a justice of many pieces.
- Kid Sidekick: Ace to Lotta
- Liquid Courage: A saloon bartender offers a glass of this to a cowboy, specifically calling the drink this trope. Hilariously subverted when the cowboy responds that if he could drink the stuff, he wouldn't need courage in the first place.
- Mayor Pain: Mayor Sidewinder is the incompetent type and he comes off as a Sleazy Politician too. Examples of his incompetence are renaming a street rather than clean its stench and giving a non-answer to a citizen's question.
- Ms. Fanservice:
- Lotta. Both her everyday dress and gambling dress show off her cleavage.
- Saloon girl Lorraine Hester wears a low cut dress too, with cleavage visible and a bustle dress showing off an Impossible Hourglass Figure.
- Nice Hat: Being a Western, many of the characters such as Marshal Art, Pickaxe Paul and Mayor Sidewinder wear these.
- The Place: The title is the name of the town.
- Post-Kiss Catatonia: Ace reacts this way when Lotta kisses him or when Lorraine did during her Establishing Character Moment.
- Professional Gambler: Lotta Doler
- Prospector: Pickaxe Paul. Strips with Paul show him out of town, searching for places to dig for riches.
- Punny Name: Lotta Doler note , Marshal Art, Rigg R. Mortis, Tab Stop
- Redhead In Green: Color artwork for Lotta shows her wearing green dresses and her hair as red.
- Sunday Strip: Posted on an intermittent basis.
- Symbol Swearing: Ace does this when Lotta forbids him from reading any more dime novels because of their bad language.
- Undertaker: Rigg R. Mortis
- Wild Hair: Pickaxe Paul has both hair and facial hair covering his head, face and body.
