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{{work}}
{{Multiple Works Need Separate Pages}}
''
'''The title of each novel contains some sort of wordplay on "miss" or "mis-" or "mess" (in the first novel), The "first" series contains twelve novels:'''
* ''Another Fine Myth'' (1978)
* ''Myth Conceptions'' (1980)
* ''Myth Directions'' (1982)
* ''Hit or Myth'' (1983)
* ''Myth-ing Persons'' (1984)
* ''Little Myth Marker'' (1985)
* ''M.Y.T.H. Inc. Link'' (1986)
* ''Myth-Nomers and Im-Pervections'' (1987)
* ''M.Y.T.H. Inc. in Action'' (1990)
* ''Sweet Myth-Tery of Life'' (1993)
* ''Myth-Ion Improbable'' (2001)
* ''Something M.Y.T.H. Inc.'' (2002)
'''The "new" [[Myth Adventures]] series, co-authored with Jody Lynn Nye (who intends to continue the series after [[Author Existence Failure|Asprin's death]]), currently contains the following novels:'''
* ''Myth-Told Tales'' (2003)
* ''Myth Alliances'' (2003)
* ''Myth-Taken Identity'' (2004)
* ''Class Dis-Mythed'' (2005)
* ''Myth-Gotten Gains'' (2006)
* ''Myth-Chief'' (2008)
* ''Myth-Fortunes'' (2009)
Additionally, the first novel was adapted into an eight-part graphic novel by [[
Now has a [[Myth Adventures/Characters|character sheet]].
----
{{tropelist}}
* [[Aggressive Negotiations]]: Skeeve is parleying with the head of the opposing army when suddenly he realises the opposing army has been moving into position to attack him while he's distracted by the peace talk. He complains that this is a breach of protocol, and is informed that yes, it is, but it also works extremely well.
* [[Ambition Is Evil]]: Subverted. The main characters tend to use their functional magic to make money and wind up even richer than they started.
* [[Another Dimension]]: A whole plethora of them, more than any individual can visit in one lifetime.
* [[Arbitrary Skepticism]]: Played for laughs. Magic? Fine. Demons? Fine. Dragons? Fine. Interdimensional travel? Fine. Blue gremlins? NO WAY!
* [[Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?]]: Fortunately for Skeeve, logic is not high on the priority list of requisite skills for Mob bosses.
* [[Author Filibuster]]: Asprin and (evidently) Nye both have the bad habit of dropping into lecture mode.
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* [[The Big Guy]]: Chumley is a Class 3, with Class 5 tendencies. As the male Trolls have found that being Big and Dumb tends to land them lucrative jobs as hired muscle, the entire male half of his race consists of Class 3 Big Guys.
* [[Brick Joke]]: In "M.Y.T.H. Inc. Link", the brick needed several chapters to land. Briefly, it's about a worker's union in a factory.
* [[Call a Rabbit
* [[Cats Are Magic]]: Lampshaded in one of the books: "Cats and computers can work through dimensions."
* [[Chain of Deals]]: This is how Deveels make their fortunes.
* [[Character Development]]: The whole series is that for Skeeve, in a way. His views and opinions about the world really evolve throughout the books. This goes for some of his friends/allies too.
* [[Cheap Gold Coins]]: Parodied. Skeeve and Aahz are given a pitiful amount (on Klod) of gold coins to win a war with, but on Deva it turns out that ''one'' gold coin is a pretty decent asking price for an interdimensional mercenary's services.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Around the time he was actively working with/against the Mob, Skeeve acquired a Djin in a bottle. It took several years in-story and 8 year in real time to put it into use. His name is Kalvin, by the way.
* [[Cool Gate]]: Skeeve's tiny tent leads into a huge luxurious mansion. The mansion is actually in [[
* [[Covers Always Lie]]: The Ace reprints of the series sadly offer this trope in spades.
* [[Cute Monster Girl]]: The women of Trollia, who are Trollops. Contrast their male counterparts, the Trolls.
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* [[Encyclopedia Exposita]]: Each chapter has a fictitious quote. An example might be something like, "Violence is never the right thing to do" - Attila the Hun. This is dropped in later novels; Asprin commented at one point that thinking up the quotes had become the hardest part of the writing.
* [[Epigraph]]: Parodied. Most of the quotes are fictitious, but some are genuine quotes that are made funny in the context of the associated chapter.
* [[ET Gave Us Wi
* [[Evil Chancellor]]: Although Grimble frequently engages in power struggles with General Badaxe, he has no desire to rule.
* [[Explosive Breeder]]: There is a [[Running Gag]] in one of Foglio's comic adaptations involving small dragons that [https://web.archive.org/web/20150428205442/http://www.airshipentertainment.com/growfcomic.php?date=20070204 reproduce on contact with water] (The Myth Adventures sequence can be read starting [https://web.archive.org/web/20150428205842/http://www.airshipentertainment.com/mythcomic.php?date=20101002 HERE]) One of them happens to get into a market stall demonstrating umbrellas, and after that they keep showing up everywhere, until at the end of the scene the original owners are forced to round them all up.
* [[Expy]]: In ''Something M.Y.T.H. Inc.'', parodies of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, Zorro, and the Fellowship of the Ring all make trouble for Possiltum. In the latter case, their expy status is deliberately self-engineered ("We need a dwarf!").
* [[Extreme Omnivore]]: Aahz, in a visual [[Running Gag]] in Foglio's graphic novels, is occasionally seen snacking on various objects not usually considered food. However, considering the content of Pervian food (See [[Masochist's Meal]], below), this may be entirely justified - or just Foglio's sly way of pointing out Aahz's [[Large Ham|scenery-chewing ways]] in the novels.
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** A couple of firearms do appear in the later books, but are generally ineffectual or introduced purely for the incongruity.
** On Klah even demons use crossbows due to [[Masquerade]] and possibly logistics, though not everyone's too picky to use heat-seeking quarrels. Pookie was rather amused by crossbows and had something different on Perv. Then again, magic staves can send downrange all sorts of nasty things.
* [[Finger in
* [[Foreshadowing]]: In ''Myth-Chief'', in which Aahz and Skeeve compete over who gets to be M.Y.T.H. Inc.'s new president, Guido accidentally {{spoiler|calls Bunny "boss"}}. Guess who ends up getting the job...
* [[From a Single Cell]]: In one of the comics, Isstvan gets blown up by a spell, and then rather squishily reconstitutes.
* [[Fur Against Fang]]: In one dimension Skeeve visits, vampires are urbanites who look down on werewolves as country bumpkins.
* [[Gambling Game]]: Dragon Poker from ''Little Myth Marker'', appears to be a cross between standard poker and [[Calvin Ball|the fictional "Fizzbin"]] from ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'', and is always played for a [[w:table stakes|table stake]].
* [[Gayngster]]: Don Bruce, the Mob's "fairy Godfather". Skeeve suspects, of course, but it's not confirmed until the books from Guido's point of view.
* [[Genie in
* [[Genius Bruiser]]: Chumley is a rather highly educated troll, but goes by the workname of Big Crunch, mainly because most available jobs require dumb muscle instead of smart muscle.
** Guido and Nunzio also count, but not quite as much. See [[Big Guy]] above.
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* [[Guile Hero]]: Aahz. In the early novels especially, there are very few problems that he isn't able to simply talk his way out of.
** Asprin pointed out in an afterword that the inspiration for Aahz and Skeeve was an all-night marathon of the Hope & Crosby ''[[Road To]] ...'' series.
* [[Heir Club for Men]]: Don Bruce tried to play matchmaking with Bunny and Skeeve, considering Skeeve as a potential heir. As to [[Zig
* [[Hostage Spirit Link]]: Skeeve sets up {{spoiler|King Roderick and Queen Hemlock}} with unremovable magic rings, claiming that if one of them dies, so does the other, all in an attempt to keep both of them in line (and from killing one another). {{spoiler|He was bluffing; they're just normal unremovable rings. The bluff works but several books later, Hemlock catches on when Roderick dies of natural causes and nothing happens to her.}}
* [[Hurricane of Puns]]: Oh Lord, yes... usually ranking F4 or F5. Fortunately, they tend to be a bit more highbrow than similar storm systems in ''[[
* [[Insistent Terminology]]: Denizens of Perv are called Pervects. One would be wise not to forget this, lest one be the subject of percussive education. Pervert, it is explained, is actually a racial slur.
* [[Interdimensional Travel Device]]: The D-Hopper is used throughout the series to get to different universes.
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** Even funnier is how it happens. Aahz chews Skeeve out when he learns that the thing everyone's been going nuts over is a butt-ugly statue. But as soon as Skeeve admits that it was supposed to be his birthday present, Aahz practically falls in love with it.
* [[Judgment of Solomon]]: Subverted in ''Hit and Myth''. The decision is rendered by Skeeve (while disguised as King Roderick) regarding a dispute over a cat, but:
{{quote|
* [[Kayfabe]]: Used in-universe by two Trolls from a ''Myth-Told Tales'' story, who secretly have a conversation while appearing to beat the living crap out of each other.
* [[Ley Line|Ley Lines]]: These are necessary for the casting of any magic whatsoever.
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* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]
* [[Long Running Book Series]]
* [[Lost Him in
* [[The Magic Poker Equation]]: Justified in ''Little Myth Marker'', as Skeeve has no skill or knowledge of the game in question, betting everything on the first hand without even looking at the cards. By reducing the game to what amounts to a coin flip, he renders skill irrelevant.
* [[Masochist's Meal]]: ''All'' of Pervian food. According to Aahz: "The biggest problem with Pervian food is to keep it from crawling away from your dish while you are eating it..."
* [[Master Apprentice Chain]]: Garkin & Aahz > Skeeve > Massha
* [[Mildly Military]]: The Possiltum military is under funded and underfed, so it's justified that they're insubordinate and incompetent.
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** Not entirely. The Djinni explains to Skeeve {{spoiler|(but only AFTER he had already technically fulfilled his contractual obligation and was about to leave at Skeeve's insistance) that he had been deliberately underselling his abilities so that Skeeve would be more impressed when he finally DID perform his single service.}} He gives Skeeve a Self Reliance [[Aesop]] Speech before leaving.
* [[Parody Magic Spell]]: All incantations are fake trappings meant to impress [[Muggles]]. Quite a lot of them fall under the trope, including "Alakazam-shazam" and the perennial favourite "Walla Walla, Washington".
* [[Please Put Some Clothes On]]: Skeeve has this problem with Queen Hemlock and Bunny. The fact that he's embarrassed tips off Hemlock that he's not who he's magically disguised as.
* [[Proud Merchant Race]]: The Deveels.
* [[Psmith Psyndrome]]: Go ahead. Call him "Oz the Pervert". We'll wait.
* [[Rock Beats Laser]]: In ''Little Myth Marker'', a crooked casino dealer disdains magical cheating methods (which the gamblers are watching for) in favor if the simple finesse of a marked deck (which they aren't).
* [[Shirley Template]]: "Markie" from ''Little Myth Marker'' is a classic Shirley Temple [[expy]], which is to be expected considering the title and half of the plot of the novel comes from the Shirley Temple movie ''[[Little Miss Marker]]''. The trope is played with when the book's plot diverges from the movie.
* [[Shout-Out]]: E.g. Guido & Nunzio (see their [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] prototype in the [[Unrelated Brothers]] article).
** Idnew and Drahcir, the Woof Writers - A shout out to Wendi and Richard Pini... in werewolf form.
*** Phil Foglio's illustration of Don Bruce for one book looks like a certain [[Barnaby|Mr. O'Malley.]]
**** For that matter, Nick the Vampire is Phil's avatar in-universe.
* [[Shown Their Work]]: Asprin dealt with writer's block by doing research. On the negative side, this sometimes led to the [[Author Filibuster
* [[Smoke Out]]: Skeeve tries a variation of this to intimidate an army. Unfortunately, he quickly learns that his ninja smoke makes him sneeze.
* [[Springtime for Hitler]]: Guido and Nunzio's attempts to disrupt the Possiltum army in ''M.Y.T.H. Inc. in Action'' only end up improving the army and/or getting them promoted. Even when they go as far as to have supplies delivered at random.
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* [[Virgin Power]]: Embarrassingly, Skeeve is the only one in the group that does not elicit a negative reaction from a <s>stolen</s> borrowed war unicorn.
** Considering he almost killed himself by attending too many drunken parties at one point, that's quite a feat.
** Well, they never did [[Did They or Didn't They?|actually figure out whether he had or not]], and by that time he had already owned that unicorn for years. Long enough for it to overlook if he did or didn't.
*** The again, it seems to put up with Aahz too, who almost certainly has, so it may just be very well-trained.
* [[Vocal Dissonance]]: Nunzio's a big man described with a tiny voice.
* [[Watering Down]]: The book ''M.Y.T.H. Inc. In Action'' features Mob enforcer Guido discussing this phenomena, noting it's a way for the bar owner to make more money off less product, and his customers don't mind because less alcohol per glass makes the drink "healthier".
* [[We Are
* [[We Sell Everything]]: The Deva Bazaar... which, by the way, consists of the ''entire planet''.
* [[Weak but Skilled]]: As a magic-user, Skeeve only knows a handful of basic spells. Nevertheless, he's able to use these ([[Guile Hero|along with copious amounts of cunning, negotiation, and B.S.]]) to get the reputation of a sorcerous demi-god.
* [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]]: {{spoiler|Isstvan}} in Foglio's comic-book adaptation.
* [[Whole-Plot Reference]]: ''Little Myth Marker'', to ''[[Little Miss Marker]]''.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]
[[Category:Fantasy Comic Books]]
[[Category:
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