De Cape et de Crocs

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Don Lope, Doña Hermine, Armand de Maupertuis, and Eusèbe.

A 10-volume French comic series written by Alain Ayroles (also author of the Fractured Fairy Tale comic Garulfo) and illustrated by Jean-Luc Masbou.

In Europe of the XVII th century, two noblemen united by an indestructible friendship, Don Lope de Villalobos Y Sangrin, a rash and impulsive Spanish wolf, and Armand Raynal de Maupertuis, French Gascon fox poet, dash into an epic adventure in search of the treasure of the Tangerine islands. During their trip, which will lead them to the borders of the world, and even elsewhere, they will meet their companions of adventure: Eusèbe, a naïve but cunning rabbit, Raïs Kader, who hides a generous personality under surly airs, and promises Lope a duel to the death but becomes his friend, Doña Hermine, Don Lope's lover, who hides a similar feeling, Séléné, Cenile's adopted child, who lives an idyll with Armand, and Bombastus, learned German so cultivated as to be annoying. Besides this heterogeneous troupe, they will also meet Andreo, Séléné's brother and his servant, Plaisant, a troop of pirates without scruples, a ruthless capitàn and strange exiles from the moon...

Tropes used in De Cape et de Crocs include:

• Actual Pacifist: Most of the selenite population (except the mimes).
• Anachronism Stew: Hoooo boy, where to start... Let's just mention the Heavy Metal concert onboard a pirate ship (with period instruments to boot) and leave it at that.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Prince Jean and his sister.
• Art Evolution: In the first book, Rais Kader looks like an Arabian Mario, he nows looks more the Badass he's supposed to be.
• Atlantis: Mentioned (as being a myth). At one point, our heroes are stranded on a tiny patch of rock in the middle of the ocean, which is later shown to be the roof of a Greek-type building with statues, but nothing else is made of it.
  • It is referenced later as having been in contact with the Selenite at some point.
• Awesomeness By Analysis / Combat Clairvoyance: How Armand wins against Mendoza (though shutting up probably helped).
• Badass Bandolier: The Rais carries four pistols like this during the You Shall Not Pass moment.
• Badass Spaniard: Don Lope, Mendoza
• Bamboo Technology: TWO friggin' MOON ROCKETS.
• Beleaguered Assistant: Plaisant to Andreo; also Cigognac to Cap'tain Boone.
• Big Bad: Prince Jean for a good chunk of the story, though the series most iconic and recurring villain is Mendoza.
• Big Badass Wolf
• Big Damn Heroes: Several times, one with pegasi even.
• Bilingual Bonus
• Blessed Are the Cheesemakers: Moon has some fromage trees.
• Blood Knight: A very downplayed one: Colin is suffering from bellicism, very rare among the peaceful Selenites, and it makes him attempt to pick fights with everyone he meets.
• Brains and Brawn: The two main characters are both excellent swordsmen, but Don Lope is notably more hot-blooded and eager to go into a fight, when Armand is more intellectual and diplomatic.
  • Lope has also proven to be physically stronger and a better fighter than Armand, he has been able to fight and even win against the Sword Master.
    • It even becomes somewhat of a plot point near the end of the series.
• Book Ends
• Call Back: In volume 8, the heroes sneak onto the ship in exactly the same way as the first book (down to the mimes making the exact same gestures as their Turkish counterparts).
• Cannibal Tribe: Subverted.
  • Sort of...
• Card-Carrying Villain: Mendoza. Especially obvious when he rants about how Eusebe's appareance, personnality and behaviour represent everything he hates.
• Carnivore Confusion: Lampshaded several times for laughs.
• The Cat The Squid Came Back
• The Cavalier Years
• Chase Scene
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The pirates.
• Combat Pragmatist: Mendoza
• Commedia Dell'Arte: Selene and the Pirates are forced to perform one of these in Volume 4 for the benefit of their Selenite captors; the performance is rather lackluster until Don Lope and friends burst on the scene to confront their rivals. Fortunately for all involved, the audience thinks it's All Part of the Show.
• Cunning Like a Fox
• Kidnapped Daughter: Rais Kader's motivation for the treasure hunt: to get enough gold to raise an army, with which to storm Maracaibo where his daughter Yasmina is held.
• Deadpan Snarker: Armand.
• Death by Materialism: See Taken for Granite below.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The war at the end of volume 8, in red.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Everything Aldrin de Redondie says only describes what he is doing and thinking at the moment.
• Determinator: All the heroes, to some extent, but the Rais gets a good one at the beginning: when it seems the map has been stolen (and so all hope of obtaining the treasure to raise his fleet), he declares it to have been written, and so will continue to scour the seas until they run red with blood.
• Didn't See That Coming: Mendoza would have never imagined that Armand could counter his secret and fatal move.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Armand and Andreo.
• Disproportionate Retribution: When the Rais' men lose the map, he orders his ship's mast to be sharpened, so he can impale a dozen or so sailors as an example.
• The Ditz: Séléné
• Dope Slap: One pirate who doesn't realize they need to keep up the honest merchant act anymore gets one.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Mendoza
• Dumb Blonde: Séléné; Andreo
  • Especially Andreo.
• Easily Forgiven: It seems the squid doesn't hold grudges for cutting off one of his tentacles and using him as a carrot.
  • It seems to have regenerated, so...
• Enemy Mine: In the first book, Spaniard ("and therefore bastion of Christianity") Don Lope has to team up with the Ottoman (and Muslim) Rais Kader. They get over it - mostly.
  • In a darker tone, Armand and Mendoza.
• Enemy Mime
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Maître d'Armes, even though he's obviously Cyrano De Bergerac.
  • Obvious for the audience, maybe not for the characters. Though Lope's father probably knew his name.
  • Also the Rais Kader, which translates to Boss Kader.
• Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods
• Expressive Hair: The Rais Kader's mustache. Droopy when depressed or confused, horizontal otherwise.
• Evil Twin: Two Three sets, we have yet to see Eusèbe's.
  • And we never will.
• Expy: Cap'n Boone is Blackbeard, Aldrin, Colin and Fort-à-Bras are Aramis, D'Artagnan and Porthos respectively.
  • Maybe more Athos than D'Artagnan.
  • Also, astronauts. They're musketeers In Space!
    • Fort-à-Bras translates as Strong-of-Arm or Armstrong.
      • Not the only one : Colin and Aldrin are for Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin.
• Food Porn
• Foe Yay: Lope and Mademoiselle.
• For Science!: Bombastus' primary motivation.
• Funny Animal
• Funny Background Event: All the time. One of the earliest examples is the living roots (?) escaping from the vats of the Kabbalist Kader visits at the beginning in Venezia.
• Furry Confusion
• Galley Slaves: With the requisite lunatic drummer, whip-toting guards, and slave uprising when the ship is attacked.
• Genius Bruiser: One of the three recurring pirates comes up with the theory of gravitation.
  • Note that he comes up with it after Bombastus hit him on the head with an apple...
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: One scene (sadly untranslatable) has our heroes break free from the pirates and attack, the pirates loudly proclaiming what body parts were hit, using words containing those body parts (a possible translation would be: "My arm! I've been disarmed!"). So when it's the guy who got bit in the ass's turn, he just goes "What should I say?"
  • Also, everything the spooneristic smugglers say is astonishingly vulgar once decoded.
• Gold Fever: Cénile.
• Good Cop Rabid Cop
• Greed: Cenile is Harpagon turned Up to Eleven.
• Heroic Sacrifice / Taking the Bullet: Eusebe's rock.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: Lope and Armand. Also, Andreo and Plaisant.
• Horse of a Different Color: While there are horses on the Moon, giant ducks are an alternate form of transportation.
• Hot Gypsy Woman: Hermine
• Hurricane of Puns
• How Dare You Die on Me!: When Don Lope believes Kader to be lost at sea, his reaction to the loss of his enemy turned adventuring companion is to let out an angry scream: "We were supposed to have a duel!"
• Hurl It Into the Sun: Prince Jean's fate. Though it's mentioned that the sun is an inhabited planet like the moon.
• Hypocritical Humor: Armand sees Don Lope barrel past on an amputee's cart waving his sword, chasing a sedan chair blinded by Eusebio, asking how one can engage in such farcical behavior. Then he points his sword at Plaisant, on which are skewered several vegetables and a squid.
  • When the pirates threaten to eat the remaining captives, Lope says they wouldn't hesitate to feed on human flesh... while looking as realistically rabid wolf-like as you please.
• I Ate What?: Don Lope, learning he very likely just ate a dog.
• Interrupted Suicide: Armand is about to jump from a cliff in despair from losing Selene to the Maître d'Armes and being stranded on the Moon without his friends when the Rock arrives to warn him that his friends have been captured by Mendoza.
• It's All About Me: Prince Jean
• Insistent Terminology: Boney Boone wants to be called Captain. Later inverted since he's trying to pass for a civilian, leading to: "Captain Boone!" "That's Mister Boone!"
• It Runs on Nonsensoleum: Bombastus' flying machine and moon rockets fly because of the noise generated by explosions... at least, that's how he explains it.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Armand
• Laser-Guided Karma: Cenile
• Large Ham: Captain Boone, but the others show some signs as well, especially during the theater sequence.
  • The resident Mad Scientist's name is Bombastus.
• Let's Get Dangerous: Armand stops rhyming and starts fighting in the final battle. It works.
• Lions and Tigers and Humans, Oh My!
• Long List
  • "... les cornemuses, mais aussi les luths, les violes, les violons, les harpes, les clavecins, les hautbois, les bombardes, les flageolets, les pipeaux, les binious..."
• Mad Bomber: Bombastus tends to put a little too much gunpowder in his fireworks.
• Mad Scientist: Bombastus
• Man Hug: Between Lope and Armand, all the time. Fellow badasses Cap'n Boone and the Rais Kader share one.
• Meaningful Name: Everybody.
  • Sometimes with a Bilingual Bonus: Spilorcio for instance, means miser.
• Message in a Bottle
• Medium Awareness: Sort of. The beginning of the third book has Armand and the Rais on an curtained elevated platform reading documents, then three sharp raps are heard. They look up, clear their throats, and then start talking, as if they were on a stage. (The raps coming from Don Lope hammering on a shell to crack it open).
• Milking the Giant Cow: Many characters are seen gesticulating wildly in the background. The pirates define this with their panic attacks.
  • When Armand gets a little too caught up in his poetry and starts Chewing the Scenery, Don Lope starts imitating him.
• Mighty Whitey: Inverted. The Noble Savage finds a tribe of primitive white-skinned men and is treated as a god before he convinces them otherwise.
• Money for Nothing: On the Moon, gold, jewels and other precious objects grow on trees. They use poems as currency.
• Motivation on a Stick: How the Flying Dutchman is moved. It involves a giant octopus and a really big fish.
• Nice Hat: Most everybody has one, but Bombastus keeps his the longest.
• Noble Savage: Twice subverted; the members of the savage tribe are caucasian. The only black-skinned member of their village is actually very educated.
• Noodle Incident: How Eusèbe was sent to the galleys in the first place.
  • It apparently involves being framed for murder.
  • It is supposed to be the subject of two upcoming prequel books by the same authors
• Non-Human Sidekick: Eusèbe (himself Non-Human Sidekick of two Non-Human Main Protagonists) has a pet animated rock.
• Not So Stoic: Don Lope, upon the Rais Kader's disappearance.
• Oblivious to Love: Apparently, Selene to Armand
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Bombastus and the Maitre d'Armes.
• Orphan's Plot Trinket: Séléné's necklace.
• Overly Long Name: Don Lope de Villalobos Y Sangrin, Messire Armand Raynal de Maupertuis, but the award goes to Herr Bombastus Johannes Theophrastus Almagestus Wernher Von Ulm.
• Overprotective Dad: Rais Kader, once he gets his daughter back.
• Pirate
  • And corsairs, and freebooters...
• Precision F-Strike: Only once in the whole series, addressed to a fish, and it's in Spanish (but not even hard to figure out).
• Princess Curls: Séléné; Mademoiselle.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: The pirates.
• Rascally Rabbit: Eusèbe.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: See Brains and Brawn, above.
• Reference Overdosed
• Rousing Speech: Cigognac's speech, also a CMOA in its own right. Captain Boone does this repeatedly as a morale-inducing method.
  • On the evil side, Mendoza is good at this.
• Running Gag: Don Lope de Villalobos Y Sangrin never gets a chance to fully introduce himself. The closest he ever gets is De Villalobos Y. Also, variations on "What the devil was he doing in that galley?"
• Sand Is Water: The non-dark side of the moon.
• Scars Are Forever: Andrea keeps the one he got from his very nearly suicidal attack on Mendoza.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Bombastus gets these a lot in the last book.
• Schedule Slip: Up to two years between books. Lampshaded at one point when Armand, who was in a cooking pot at the end of the last book, notes "It feels like I've been cooking in here for a year!"
• Scenery Porn
• The Scrooge: Cenile
• Selective Obliviousness: Captain Boone flat-out refuses to believe the chicken he carries on his shoulder is not, in fact, a parrot.
  • "And the reason it doesn't speak is because it has a sore throat!"
  • He also does not (or pretends not to) recognise an actual parrot when he encounter ones.
  • Bombastus refuses to acknowledge the pirate's theory of "gravitation" over his own. With Scary Shiny Glasses no less.
• Shoot the Rope: subverted. "Well, I was trying to shoot him in the head..."
• Shout-Out: Too many to count, including references to the Roman de Renart, classical French theater and literature, but also Shakespeare, Moby Dick, the works of Jules Verne, and popular culture like Alien, Monty Python, Disney, Lemmings, Rambo, Batman and Robin...
  • Cenile's gold scene is likely a Shout-Out to a similar scene in La Folie des Grandeurs.
  • A musical one: when Selene tells the Weapon Master that she would like to be called Roxane, she stands under the glow from the Earth which is red because of an eclipse.
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: See Expy above.
  • Also, Don Lope's last name, Y Sangrin, refers to the wolf's name in the Roman de Renart, Ysengrin (his wife is called Hermine by the way). Similarly, the fox's estate in this tale is called Maupertuis.
• Staring Through the Sword: how the pirates salute Eusebe's rock being cast into space.
• Taken for Granite: Cenile's fate, refusing to take cover in a gold forest results in his being coated in it.
• Techno Babble: Bombastus' theories.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: When Don Lope believes the Rais Kader gone, he cries out that he didn't have the right to deny him their duel. Later, the Rais tells an unconscious Lope that they still have their duel to fight.
• The Show Must Go Wrong
• Timmy in a Well: With a rock.
• Title Drop: Kind of, capes and fangs are mentioned in the same sentence.
• Too Dumb to Live: Andreo is not able to see that the "honest merchants" he tries to hire on a treasure hunt are pirates.
• Strapped to An Operating Table: Used on a living stone. It seems like a parody, but then they start using acid....
• Tribal Carry: When captured by the savage tribe.
  • "Degrading! This is degrading!"
• True Companions
• Understatement: The Litotiens' hat. The enormous palace of the no less gigantic Fort-à-Bras on the other side of a mountain is described as "the scrawny guy's hut behind the hill".
  • When everyone else is delivering Pre Ass Kicking One Liners / Badass Boasts, he claims he's going to "scold these rascals" with a great big smile and an even huger haldberd.
• The Vamp: Mademoiselle
• Viewers Are Geniuses: You need a good knowledge of French literature and theater to spot all the references.
  • And movies and music and comics and English literature and...
  • Even before that, you need a very good vocabulary. This well educated French troper needs a dictionary regularly for some scenes. The poetry battle and the encounter with the philosophers were egregious.
• Villain Exit Stage Left: At the end of Album 9.
• Villain Song: The pirates and the Prince.
• Visual Pun: A court clerk is seen writing with a cat on his desk. In French, "greffier" refers to the job but is also a type of cat.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Don Lope and the Rais Kader grow into this.
• Volleying Insults: The aforementioned rap battle.
• Walk the Plank: Mendoza inflicts this to Eusebe.
  • The pirates do this to Don Lope as well. When Armand sees blood and jumps off... it turns out Lope had bitten one shark and was getting ready to stab another.
• Wham! Episode: The end of Volume 8. Dear God, the end of Volume 8.
• Wham! Line: I love you... Maitre d'Armes! (Weapon Master)
• World of Ham: Given how often they seem to be actual theatrical performers...
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Don Lope is afraid of rats.
  • The pirates are afraid of rabbits, ghost ships, and even metaphysics.
• You Fight Like a Cow: Armand's first battle against Mendoza and against the Maitre d'Armes. In the other battles, it's mostly him monologuing (in rhyme no less).
• You Shall Not Pass: "Messieurs les mimes, tirez les premiers!" "These dogs will know the fury of a janissary!" "No pasaran!"
• Younger Than They Look: Plaisant, despite looking like he's in his forties, is actually the same age as Andreo and Selene.