The Mansion of E



The Mansion of E is a daily fantasy webcomic created by Robert Cook, AKA Troper Geoduck. The eponymous structure is a large cactus-shaped edifice mysteriously perched on the side of a high cliff overlooking a Specific Ocean, surrounded by a ruin-strewn forest. Underneath is the "Basement", a collection of caverns and tunnels and such, going deep into the earth. The strip painstakingly details the activities of the Mansion/Forest/Basement's many and diverse inhabitants; including a few Humans, who technically own the entire place. The plot is set in motion by the sudden arrival on the scene of the wandering heroine Rosemary Ripley, who sets off a long series of events disrupting the established order.

The strip is currently hosted by Comic Genesis. There's also a fan-run wiki.


 * Action Dress Rip
 * Action Girl: Rosemary
 * Aerith and Bob: Humans have 'normal' names. Everyone else..
 * After the End: See below under The Magic Goes Away.
 * Apothecary Alligator: Rhid has a crocogator hanging from the ceiling in his chemical workshop.
 * Aristocrats Are Evil: Sylvester is nice enough. His ancestors, on the other hand..
 * Art Evolution: Color is eventually added.
 * Art Shift: Silhouettes are used to depict memories/flashbacks/speculations.
 * Author Avatar: Sylvester. Sorta.
 * Beat Panel
 * Berserk Button: Crud the Gnoll has a couple.
 * Big Labyrinthine Building / Bizarrchitecture / Building of Adventure: The Mansion and the Basement.
 * Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: The Motihauls.
 * Cephalothorax: The Gobules
 * Chekhov's Gun
 * Cow Tools
 * Crapsack World: The SubShafts
 * Crossover: A character from the (now-defunct) webcomic Sandwich World came for a visit.
 * Cryptic Background Reference: It's a big world...
 * Cryptic Conversation
 * Deadpan Snarker: Chunner the Gnoll, among others.
 * Double Weapon: Rosemary's new "Can Opener".
 * The Dreaded: The Woman of Mystery tends to provoke this reaction, as do the demons Chauncy and Edgar.
 * The Faceless: Mr. Hand. Digger Odel wears so much protective gear he is essentially this. The Boogiemen and Ichyoids start out like this.
 * Fictional Document: Lots of book titles.
 * Four-Fingered Hands: Actually a plot-point.
 * Four Lines, All Waiting
 * Frogs and Toads: Frowgler the Horned Frog, plus the Motihauls are a race of bipedal amphibians.
 * Gambit Pileup
 * The Ghost: Skibble, plus the entire race of Sneeches; it eventually turns out the latter
 * Government Agency of Fiction
 * Hammerspace / Bag of Holding
 * Heli Critter: The Helipaths
 * Humans Are Cthulhu: At least as far as the Basement-dwellers are concerned.
 * The Jester: This world calls them Weirdos.
 * Jigsaw Puzzle Plot
 * The Jeeves / Servile Snarker: Hector the robot.
 * Kudzu Plot: maybe..
 * Lazy Artist
 * Lizard Folk: The Troglodytes and the Saurs.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: The cast page features 31 nearly completely major characters.
 * Loads and Loads of Races: Humans Gnolls Motihauls Gobules Troglodytes Nomes Pales Wyrms...
 * Love At First Sight: Mortimer and Yasmine.
 * Mad Bomber: Crazy Rhid, shading into Psycho for Hire.
 * Mad Scientist: Sylvester's ancestor Ludwig.
 * Meaningful Name: Many character names are actually obscure English words.
 * The Magic Goes Away: And not gradually, either.
 * Missing Mom: Vezza the Nome's, among others.
 * Neck Lift: Happens to various Gnolls; they are small and light enough it's not an automatic sign of super-strengh.
 * Nice Hat: Rosemary's helmet.
 * The Nameless: The Woman of Mystery AKA the Scary Lady. Eventually revealed to be
 * No Guy Wants an Amazon: Rosemary has had this problem.
 * Oh Crap: Rhid when Wrawa the Trog calls his bluff.
 * Only Six Faces: The Gnolls; they all have different hairstyles.
 * People Puppets: Fixits do it by attaching themselves to people's heads..
 * Pettanko: Rosemary, at least by webcomic-heroine standards.
 * Powered by a Forsaken Child: The Basement may be this, if the Subshafts do indeed have an important purpose.
 * Shout-Out: Infocom, Terry Pratchett, Kim Possible, H.P. Lovecraft, Nethack, PG Wodehouse, Dwarf Fortress..
 * The Slow Path: The Woman of Mystery and her interactions with
 * Swiss Army Appendage: Hector the robot has various hands he switches between.
 * Tertiary Sexual Characteristics
 * Theme Naming: Most of the Forest Nomes are named after spells from the Zork series. Many of the Motihauls working in Sidestep Hall are named after shopkeepers from Nethack.
 * They Called Me Mad: Sylvester's scientist-ancestor Ludwig.
 * Time for Plan B: Invoked by Rosemary after meeting some Ghasts.
 * Timey-Wimey Ball
 * Tunnel King: "Digger" Odel
 * Unsound Effect
 * Unusual Euphemism: Zark! Fratz!
 * Upper Class Twit: Sylvester and Mortimer are both well-meaning variants on this.
 * The Voiceless: The Pales, with the exception of Zpeaker.
 * Webcomic Time: Eight years. Less than two days.
 * Weirdness Magnet: Mortimer. He and his family are well aware of it. It is eventually revealed that
 * Zeppelins from Another World: If only in flashbacks and memories.