Stick In The Mud was an Embellished webcomic by Konrad "Koko" Okoński, available in Polish (Kij W Dupie note ) and English, published between 2013 and 2020.
The main character, Rod, in what seemed like a good idea at the time, buys a bar. This gets him and his friends involved in a conflict between monsters and defenders of humanity, though he'd rather stay as far away from it as possible. You see, Rod is a bit... conservative. Stodgy. A real stick in the mud, if you will. He doesn't deal with drastic change very well. Boy, is he in for a rough time...
Stick In the Mud provides examples of:
- Adorable Abomination: Mr. Blueberry, the apocalypse-causing tentacle thing that can drive you mad by telling stories spends his days drinking with his friends at the pub and seems legitimately stoked at the prospect of getting a job as a bouncer there.
- All There in the Manual: Word of God states that the town where the action takes place is based on Szczecin, Poland. Which happens to be Koko's home town.
- And the Adventure Continues: The last strip has Rod and John witnessing some off-screen disaster and the former proclaiming it's probably the latter's fault.
- Asleep for Days: Subverted. After John wakes up after dropping acid, she thinks she's been out for a long time, but it was less than a day.
- Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: Cecil and Henry entering the demon realm.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: Of course.
- Bedmate Reveal: Rod with Lamia. At the same time, Not Staying for Breakfast, as Lamia vanishes as soon as she wakes up.
- Blunt "Yes":Rod: You wake up in a dungeon after a night drinking and the first thing you do is take more drugs?
Paula: Yes. - Book Ends: The story begins and ends with Rod getting shitfaced on alcohol of dubious quality and not remembering what happened.
- Bowdlerise: A coincidental case - both the Polish and English titles of the strip come from an idiom meaning "to be an uptight person" with a word "stick" in it. It just happens that the Polish idiom in question is "mieć kij w dupie" - "to have a stick up your ass".
- Bring My Brown Pants: It's a nice kitten you have there.
- The Brute: Cecil and Henry from the Order Of The True Human Race. They're being paid to hit people. Although they are able to elaborate on swords and magic runes, so there may be more to them than meets the eye.
- Car Fu: Defied. John would like to use it against the Order Of The True Human Race, but Rod won't give her the keys.
- Cats Are Magic: Especially demon cats.
- Cavalry Refusal: It's hard to be The Cavalry when you're drunk out of your skull, like John.
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: When Rod doesn't want to explain what kind of monster Lamia is.
- Chick Magnet: Jellybean. Very much. Whenever he appears, girls are bound to appear soon afterwards. Moreover, just a hug from him gives a succubus more energy than she is able to hold.
- Most of the time, though, Jellybean is a Clueless Chick-Magnet. He's worried about the girls writing giving their phone numbers to him. It's a weird custom, aren't they afraid of some creeps calling them? He won't call them himself, he doesn't want to be a bother.
- The Chooser of the One: Mysterious naked man that appears in Rod's and John's dreams.
- Call to Adventure: The naked man gives this to Rod, who refuses.
- Jumped at the Call: Now, John, on the other hand...
- Cigarette of Anxiety: After finding a hidden door at the end of a dark corridor, Rod finally decides it's time to buy some cigs.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Lamia talks about monsters that would dye their sweater with children's blood, Rod notes how impractical that would be. Note
- Deliberately Monochrome: Of a Limited Palette variety. Aside from the title card, the comic is in black, white, and various shades of green.
- Blueberry's real name is painted in reddish hues, just to show how otherworldly it is.
- Disposing of a Body: In one of the first strips John calls Rod requesting help in burying a hooker. Trope subverted as 'the hooker' turns out ot be a bottle of Gargle Blaster.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Rod asks Blueberry to take care of the bar for a while, he does so by literally eating a beer thief whole and spitting him out a long time later.
- Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: No tequila for Jellybean. He tries, but never gets any. Rod still remembers all those animals. The fear in their beady eyes...
- Drowning My Sorrows: According to John, the real man faces his problems through alcohol. If you can't find a problem, you drink problemless.
- Eldritch Abomination: Mr. Blueberry is one occasionally.
- Erudite Stoner: John on acid, analysing the flame.
- Paula's default setting.
- Euphemistic Names: The first name of Jellybean/Kisiel in the Polish version of the comic is "Wacek", a Polish equivalent for A Dick in Name (full form of "Wacek" being Wacław). When Lamia learns of it, she almost immediately declares she'll stick to calling him Kisiel.
- Eye Take: Rod, when he realizes from where the money for buying the bar came from.
- Flash Back
- Rod needs it to remember how he made a decision to buy a bar.
- Later, he remembers a night with Lamia.
- Flipping the Bird: As seen in the image, Rod has a shirt that displays a hand doing this.
- Fortune Teller: Lilith.
- Gargle Blaster: The mysterious booze John was sent anonymously. Induces Mushroom Samba and Missing Time. The cause of Rod buying the bar in the first place.
- Gender-Blender Name: John. It's probably not her real name, but everyone calls her that.
- Geometric Magic: The Sign of Eel reveals monsters disguising as humans.
- Going Commando: Normal for Lamia.
- Hair of the Dog: John's favorite hangover cure.
- Hangover Sensitivity: Many times.
- Healing Factor: Apparently, if one loses only a small part of one's soul, it will grow back.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Monsters only want to chill and have a drink while the "true humans" group is willing to kill anyone standing in their way, including other humans.
- Humble Pie: The Brutes Cecil and Henry get beat up by carpenters.
- Intoxication Ensues: Happens many times. John never really leaves this state.
- Ironic Name
- The true name of The Man In The Hat is unpronouncable by humans, but it sounds a bit like "Blueberry" ("Jagódka" in Polish version), so that's how he ends up being called.
- The Demon Lord's name is Goodwin ("Dobromir" in Polish version).
- Knew It All Along: Lilith knew Lamia's plan won't work. She's a fortune teller, duh.
- Knight Templar: Men from the Order Of The True Human Race. Even if they beat you up, it's for the sake of the whole humanity. And you're a part of the humanity too, right?
- The Lad-ette: John is sexually promiscuous, hard-drinking and an overall lout.
- LOL, 69: John's pre-prepared password for whenever she encounters an alternate version of herself that she wants to sleep with is "Order 69!".
- Lipstick Lesbian: John.
- Missing Time: An effect of the Gargle Blaster John has obtained at the beginning of the story. A couple of times over.
- Mister Muffykins: A woman walks into a funeral parlor with five small dogs in a basket. The same one where John is impersonating a corpse. Hilarity Ensues.
- Ms. Fanservice: John. Let her relax and she'll be topless in a second.
- Mundane Utility: Rod learns a freezing spell. He uses it to cool beer.
- Mushroom Samba: Another effect of John's Gargle Blaster. That's where characters usually meet The Chooser of the One.
- New-Age Retro Hippie: Paula. The god of chill incarnate. She came to Earth to not mind about things and fall asleep in random spots.
- Nominal Hero: Rod. His Refusal of the Call only made The Chooser of the One more determined.
- Noodle Incident: Why Jellybean is not allowed to drink tequila. The last time it happened, the incident involved lots of terrified small animals, and Rod didn't appreciate having the handle the situation.
- The incident gets resolved when he finally gets to drink some tequila. It gives him animal-whisperer skills. And an epic, brooding beast lord appearance once he passes out.
- No Sense of Humor: Rod.
- Not Staying for Breakfast: That's how succubi are supposed to conduct themselves. Lamia just sleeps on the job.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: John, Rod and Jellybean. The former two's last name is Branchett (Gałęziewska and Gałęziewski in the Polish version) and the latter's first name is Eugene (Wacek).
- Only Sane Man: Rod.
- The Order: The Order Of The True Human Race. In a bit of Lampshade Hanging, both sides agree it's a horrible name.
- Our Monsters Are Weird: Cerberus is mosty humanoid, but still has three heads. The first one has a long snake-like neck. The second head is his torso, with eyes in the place of nipples and mouth across the abdomen. His third head is even lower.
- Parting-from-Consciousness Words:
- Rod: YOLO.
- Rod again: Well, fuck.
- Perpetual Frowner: Rod, as the picture on top of this page attests.
- Pyrrhic Victory: The denizens of the monster world could stop restricting themselves and kill everyone in the Rod's bar, but where would they drink afterwards?
- Rage Against the Reflection: Rod headbutts a mirror in the first strip.
- The Runaway: Paula. Her family probably thinks she's a Hikikomori, though.
- Runaway Hideaway: After running away from home, Paula lives in Rod's bar.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Jellybean.
- Rod: Jellybean, spiked coke means coke with vodka in it.
Jellybean: Oh, I thought it's one of those new, weird flavours.
Rod: What do they teach you in school nowadays?
Jellybean: Maths, mostly!
- Screw Destiny: Neither Rod nor ultimately John care about the mission from The Chooser of the One or prophecies about the end of the world.
- Screw Yourself: John is very eager to try this when she jumps back in time. And she had actually anticipated this.
- John: STOP! John! Order 69! (...) My top secret password I invented to avoid having to explain things to myself in case of ever traveling in time. If I...
Past!Rod: Alright, fine. I don't want to know after all.
- Selective Obliviousness: Rod is so uninterested with anything college-related that whenever Jellybean tries to talk about it, his dialogue gets replaced by rows of dashes.
- Shout-Out:
- Pokémon: Rod and Mike discuss the kind of moves Rod would know if he was a Pokemon.
- The Matrix: A client of a fortune teller Lilith wonders whether he should ake red one or blue one.
- Skull Cups: How the demon lord likes to drink the finest liquor.
- Succubi and Incubi: Lamia's an inexperienced succubus. She does consume the soul of whoever she sleeps with, but apparently only a little bit that can regrow over time.
- Take a Third Option: After Rod's bar gets destroyed, John sees only two options possible. Rod just wants to clean the place up.
- They Look Like Us Now: Monsters visiting Rod's bar.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: John crashing at Rod's place. Would be a Pretty Freeloader if she weren't his sister.
- The Three Certainties in Life: Even in the other world, taxes exist.
- Apparently you can take 23%note of soul as a tax, if you have a set of special Egyptian scales.
- Even the Demon Lord Goodwin doesn't want to mess up with the "kingdom's treasury".
- Too Dumb to Live: Two human patrons who ask Mr. Blueberry to tell them a story. Two strips later, they walk out of the bar, visibly shaken.
- The Trickster: John. Don't question why she's doing things. Or how.
- Truce Zone: What Rod wants his bar to be.
- Tuckerization: Several of the bar's human patrons are based on the author's Patreon supporters.
- Unfortunate Names: Jellybean's real name, Eugene, is treated as such by Lamia. Polish version, Wacek, is actually unfortunate, since it's an old-fashioned name and a euphemism for a penis.
- Unsound Effect: "Flashback".
- The Voiceless: Alex, one of the pub's patrons. Apparently her power is observation.
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Played straight with Lamia encouraging the team to drink more of that alcohol that started the story.
- You Didn't Ask: Are you going to eat my soul?
- You Monster!: Completely natural reaction after showing the Sign of Eel to The Man In The Hat.
- Your Mom: John uses it against Rod even though they are siblings.
- You Wake Up in a Room: Rod, John and Paula, after drinking John's Gargle Blaster at the beginning of the story, wake up in a dungeon.