The very first book in the series entitled "How to pour a cat into the drinking glass"
Lil i Put (Lil and Put, it's a pun on "lilliput") are the titular heroes of a Polish comic book that pastiches and parodies fantasy in general. These two vagabonds are members of a Hobbit-like race called Małoludy (literally "little people" or "Not much of people", also a play on Polish word for "gigants" - "Wielkoludy", and the word for "youngsters"- "Malolaty").
The series targets both kids and grown-ups, mixing the kid-friendly slapstick, amusing characters and puns with plenty of dark comedy, satirical references and adult humor.
The comics, created by Maciej Kur (scripts) and Piotr Bednarczyk (art), have appeared in book form, and are currently being serialized in the "Nowa Fantastyka" magazine, the biggest Polish fantasy mag, best known for as the place of The Witcher's debut.
The series provides examples of:
- The Ace: Gerwin the monster hunter, whose skills are so sharp that when he wants to know who had been swimming in a body of water hours before, all he needs to do is sniff it.
- Achievement Test of Destiny: In the very first story, Miksja must pass a make-up exam, or she will be turned into stone. This is due to the principal's insistence on not allowing non-perfect students to leave the school, and he is quite literal about this policy.
- "Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!": Oscar has a tendency to become mesmerized by every fire he sees, much like a moth, and starts walking towards it in a gleeful trance.
- Berserk Board Barricade: Lil and Put did this once, after trying to get away from the Grim Reaper they get him momentary stuned in a nursing home, after which they barricade the door with planks from the outside and comment that this would keep the draft out. Sadly for the guys, it didn't hold the Reaper for long.
- Berserk Button: The usualy Gentle Giant Rupert the dwarf turns Ax-Crazy the second he hears the word "Troll". He then proceeds to destroy everything around.
- Beat It by Compulsion: All vampires are shown to be obsessed with counting seeds tossed on the ground, which puts them in a euphoric state and is established as their favorite pastime.
- Big Eater: The entire race of Małoludy. Their life seems to be all parties and food.
- Black Comedy: The dwarfs are very casual in throwing around references to slothering elfs.
- Foli describe hell as "inclusive place where everyone has a warm welcome", genuinely believing that its cultural diversity among the demons is more condemnable than any actual torment occurring there.
- One story has Lil's mother tell him and his friends about Mamuna - a child-snatching monster from Slavic Mythology. As she tells the tale we actualy see Mamuna sneaking into the house and stealing a baby from the crib. As she about to leave thru the window Lil makes fun of the story calling entire concept of Mamuna "idiotic" and overhearing this Mamuna unexpectedly breaks down in tears feeling hurt. Other characters, including the mother of the stolen baby and even the baby itself, appear not to be even slightly bothered by Mamuna's actions and Instead, they direct their anger towards Lil for inadvertently hurting Mamuna's feelings and apologise to her for his "hurtful words".
- The Cameo: Aunt Jaga the witch from Kayko & Kokosh appears as a costumer at Nicola's alchemist shop. Interestingly both creators of "Lil and Put" did also did work on new "Kayko and Kokosh" stories.
- Lil, Put and Miksja themselves appeared on posters in Emilka Sza (which happens to have the same writer).
- Character Catchphrase: "CHODU!!!" (a funny way to say "Run for it!" or more simply "Run!") by both Lil and Put. It's even the title of the second volume.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Put.
- Oscar who is actually insane.
- Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Lampooned in one story. While all characters race towards a treasure, Ivan and his gang of dwarfs gets ahead of everyone else. As they cross the bridge Ivan stops and orders his men to destroy the bridge. Rupert question this idea and gives a speach in which he deconstructs the practicality of this trope, point by point, just for long enough to all the rivals to cross the bridge without the dwarfs noticing it... and then they decide to destroy the bridge anyway, never being aware they are far behind. Dose not stop them from having an Evil Laugh.
- Ditzy Genius : Nicola Flamel, the alchemist.
- Deadpan Snarker: Kieszonka never misses an ocasion to insult Lil in some manner.
- Don't Fear the Reaper: In his few apperances the Grim Reaper (refrence simply as "Death") despite his demonic design and presented as very powerfull being is shown to treat his job... well, as a job. In his offtime he is seen doing casual things (like joining the party at the cemetary or buying himself a pet) When Lil and Put pretend to be dead to trick The Grim Reaper into giving Morbinka his autograph, while clearly annoyed he is shown to be paitence. He also made refrence to having a family he cares for and overall presented as very human.
- Education Through Pyrotechnics: One of Miksja's school classes is on Pyromancy where the stundents learn how to control fire. You can guess how often this ends.
- Elves Versus Dwarves: Up to eleven-bordering-on-twelve - the dwarves not only only hate the elves, but their first instinct when they see one is to charge and beat the crap out of him. Miksja the elf, who has magic and is willing to use it, shows prejudice right back against dwarves.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Morbinka the dark elf has white skin, dark hair and never says a word.
- Fake Relationship: As part of the plot of the first full-book story in the series Miksja and Ivan has to pretend to be engaged and stage a fake wedding.
- First Day of School Episode: Lampshaded in a short gag story. Miksja ask Put to pretend to be her father. When Put ask what she did on the first day of school she reply it's "technicaly her last day of school" revealing she blow it up the entire academy in some unspecified accident.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Mostly fitst Ivan's gang of troll hunters:
- Ivan the White is Choleric, being the agressive leader.
- Boris the black is Melancholic, being the one just fallowing Ivans orders and is introverted if you compare him with others.
- Rupert the red is Phlegmatic, being pretty gentel empathetic and diplomatic one(minus his Berserk Button moments)
- Marcel however only slightly fits the Sanguine description, as while he is cheerful and energetic, he is also a brainless loon and a Blood Knight, who just lives to bash things and laugh about it.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Tuleja the fairy can build any machine in a split second, including ones advance way ahead of the presumed era in which the series takes place, only with a Steampunk twist. In general, her species (or at least tribe) is made out of tiny Macgyvers and technology obsessed handymen. See 'Our Fairies Are Different' below for more.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Succubi are presented as a casual race of very attractive red, horned, winged women living in cities alongside humans, elves, and dwarfs. They engage in typical daily activities, and remarkably, nobody seems to mind their presence or casual refrences to them being from hell or "eat souls". Given their history, it's quite comical that no objections are raised regarding their appearance in a children's series and creators seam to be aware of this and play this contrast for laughs of older readers. The creators even push the joke further in a story where Miksja actually warns the village of Małoludii about what succubi are – explaining that they "seduce men by making all their pleasures come true." After a brief silence, all the men run to the nearest succubi gathering, leaving Miksja in confusion.
- Give Me Back My Wallet: The opening storyline of the 4'th book focuses on Kieszonka pickpocketing... the Grim Reaper and him trying to get his pouch back (it's full of souls the Reaper has collected).
- Granola Girl: "Foli the political correct, vegetarian, feminist activist Succubus". Mind you she is still ok with eating human souls, since "they don't have meat".
- Half-Witted Hillbilly : Świętopełk is a Polish variant on the Country Bumpkin trope. You never know is his next line will have some type of Simpleminded Wisdom or (more likely) will be a total gibberish.
- Goth: Morbinka is a gentle parody.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Utopiec the water spirit... or a monster... or a sea god. It's not clear as we never see him directly, even though Lil's waged many battles against him, trying to chase Utopiec away from the pond. We do see the effects of his actions. Sometimes we see his speech bubbles.
- Hot-Blooded: Being easly provoked and impulsive in anger is one of Lil's main character trades.
- I Was Beaten by a Girl: Miksja, using her magic, beat the crap out of Ivan and his gang during their first clash, prompting Ivan's attempts at revenge. To be fair, Ivan pride wasn’t hurt because of Miksja's gender as much as by the fact that she’s an elf.
- Informed Species: One short story established that Morbinka is actually "an dark elf", a completely different species. Somehow, the regular elf Miksja is still her cousin.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Both Lil and Put. Petty scammers and lazy bums, but tried-and-true friends to Miksja, whose life they've saved on some occasions.
- Morality Kitchen Sink: This is not a story about epic fights between good and evil. Lil and Put live in a world of very complex moral compasses. They themselves, despite being nice guys and helpful for their friends, make a living as petty conmen or freeloading, and generally have zero problems breaking laws. The series often pokes fun at moral paradoxes of our world - when one of a characters writes a book on glorious and bloody deeds of a dwarven hero, for example, he gets attacked by enraged dwarves who don't want to be associated with this sort of stuff anymore. He promises to write a nice book about them, only to have Miksja threaten him with fireballs if he does. He then breaks down crying "But I love you both the same!" while background characters snark at how boring the book is.
- School Is Murder: The Wizarding School that Miksja attends—oh, boy, where do I even start? Teachers turning students into stone for failing them, sending students on dangerous quests on the verge of suicidal missions, tests whos goal is to survive and teaching spells that can set you on fire if you screw up just a tiny bit are just few reason why Miksja has all the reason in the world to be stressed out as she is.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Once, Lil, Put and Miksja had no money to pay the fairies for the clock they made, so they tried to run off with it. But Miksja stopped half way to tell the guys she was too honorable to run and willing to take the punishment rather than cheat the fairies.
- Shout-Out:
- In one story Death returns a parrot to the pet store and complains it's alive with very familiar sounding dialog.
- In one story a panel of two pesants seeing Put flying by on the hang glider is a homage to a famous Polish paiting "Storks" by Józef Chełmoński (it adds extra irony that Put previewsly stated he wants to fly "like a stork" as that's what the pesants seen in the orginal painting)
- There is a one page story where Miskja travel to north pole to find a wizard frozen in ice who masters all the elemets. Even the speach as she unfrezze him with her fireblast is a parody of certain intro. Heck, the story is even titled "The legend of Miksja", but the punchline is very difrent then what one woudl expect.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Lil and Kieszonka can go like this for hours (usually Kieszonka starts).
- Sticky Fingers: Lil's sister Kieszonka (Pocket) fancies herself a master pickpocket and is usualy seen either stealing or running away after being caught red-handed.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: One story focuses on the "most beautiful princess in the world", so attractive that everyone who saw her became mad with envy on the spot and began to hate the princess. Everyone, including male characters, her own reflection in the mirror and forces of nature. The princess was rather miserable because of this, especially that she was abandoned by everyone for being so unhumanly pretty they couldn't comprehend it. Her face is never shown so the reader doesn't turn against her, too.
- Soapbox Sadie: Foli the Succubus who became a caricature of liberal activists and tend to annoy every other character in the series.
- Squishy Wizard : Miksja, despite being very powerful, was established of needing to recharge her powers as well a moment to concetrate. When caught off guard, her only option is to run.
- Summoning Ritual: In one story Miksja has problem chasing Lil, Put and their entire family out of her castle before her Uncle returns. Solution? She preformes a dark, necromantic ritual to summon a powerful spirit of two-headed decaputated, white lady and orders her to chase them away. (It dosent work out as she planned)
- Thieving Magpie: When Miksja turns bunch of Małoludii into birds, Kiesoznka the pickpocket gets, ironically transform into a magpie. She (even more ironically) do not mind, sice being a bird is useful to steal stuff.
- Pictorial Speech-Bubble: The language of the fairies sounds like ringing of bells, and is represented by drawings of ringing bells in their Speech Bubbles. Rather varied drawings, such as a picture of doorbell ringing for welcoming someone, a fire-alarm for call for help, a bell tower for yelling loudly to name just a few.
- Political Overcorrectness: In one story, the focus is on Foli the Succubus correcting others over terms such as "hellspawn" and people using "hell" to scare children. She admits that while hell is in fact as a place of eternal torment, she finds generalising it offensive to demons and their rich culture.
- Running Gag: Literal one: Miksja being chased by the dwarf mob.
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same: All dwarves are pretty much the same, only exaggerrated for comic effect. Your average, common-or-mine barbaric, loud, violent, self-righteous brutes horribly (sometimes sadistically) bigoted towards elves. They also enjoy a good sing-a-long... as long as it's about elves getting beaten to a pulp.
- Our Fairies Are Different: Fairies have blue or coal-black skin, humanoid bodies with something between antennae and horns on top of their heads. Interestingly, they are obsessed with technology, and appear to be the most technically advanced race in the land.
- Undertaker: Not one but two, who are rivals (three if you count one of them having a female sidekick).
- Wacky Racing: One story includes ENTIRE CAST racing towards a hidden treasure, all in vechicles typical for them (Miksja uses flying carpet, the undertakers their wagon, Tuleja builds a steam-punk style machine etc.) and trying to out-trick each other.
- Would Hit a Girl: Ivan and his gang try to beat Miksja up every time they ran into her.
- Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Gerwin wants to kill Kirki for being an goblin. That Kirki is a friendly, (mostly) harmless pet to Miksja does not concern the valiant hunter.
