Trader Lydia is a fantasy/comedy webcomic written by Ted Bishop (AKA Dragon-FangX). The premise is quite simple: Lydia the dark gnome sets up shop in a random Louisiana bayou. The comic was originally hosted on the artist's DeviantArt page, but as of strip #428, updates are now posted on Owl Quill
. The first page of the comic can be found here. The comic is still ongoing but it does make for a fun reread when you're waiting for updates.
This webcomic provides examples of:
- Ace Custom: In the forms of Powered Armor to Humongous Mecha and a BFS.
- Artistic License – Physics: Lydia's mailbox should have burnt down by now, and the fire should have been crackling the whole time.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: In the third page when she gets her first customer, Lydia gets distracted looking for a pocket watch and forgets about them for a while.Lydia: Now where did I put that pocket Watch of Suggestion? Hope Bay didn't steal it again before I left LA...
Jennifer: Hello? Anyone here?
Lydia: CUSTOMER! HelloandwelcometoTraderLydia'sBayouBargainshomeofallyourmysticalandabnormalitemneedsmynameisLydiahowmightIhelpyou? - Badass Adorable: Lydia's Ice Cream Warrior, Sumi. Not only is she extremely agile when leaping out of the way of the sandwich monster's attack, she does so before using her utensil; a Rider Belt.
- Badass Army: Lydia's Gingerbread army. While their armaments of peppermint-spiked maces, candy-cord spears, and toothpick bows don't phase the sandwich monster, they are still able to delay it long enough for Sumi to fully set.
- Bigger on the Inside: Lydia's original store, both as a tent and an airship. The store was shown to have held an entire shopping mall, complete with parking garages and internal bike lanes. It's later revealed to be because of a special crystal she used to make a pocket space for all of the sections to fit. When Bob ends up causing the destruction of the crystal after a draglin ate all of his pudding again, the amount of actual space in the store causes it to explode while flying as an airship and Lydia loses most of her merchandise.
- Brick Joke:
- Multi-limb monthly.
- "Somedays it's just not worth coming into work".
- Slenderman's tie.
- When Lydia's original shop is destroyed, one of the pieces of inventory raining down is a BFS. 88 pages later, an unfortunate civilian brings it back after it fell on and apparently split his house in two.
- Call-Back: When Lydia's original shop is destroyed thanks to Bob and the Draglin that ate his pudding, she is forced to go to Paige's inn to temporarily recuperate. While Paige had previously been referenced in the Webcomic, Akina greeting her again is a reference to the first chapter of The Book of Lore when Lydia previously went to the Inn.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Harmonii and Lydia discuss how long it took for Jennifer's breakdown.
- Double Take: Bob doesn't notice the fire until he hears it crackling.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- The woman is seen in the first comic watching Lydia travel turns out to be Jennifer after she made a wish on ShaSha to never have worked in Lydia's store.
- In one of the earlier comics for the series, Ohm from The Book of Lore ends up appearing after a distortion in space is created by Jennifer's wish on ShaSha to never have worked in the store long before his role in The Book of Lore.
- Running Gag:
- Slenderman just wants his new tie. He finally finds one when Selkie becomes cashier for the store and checks out.
- The thief who keeps breaking in.
- The numerous Oh, Crap! moments.
- Bob keeps losing his pudding due to something bad happening to it.
- ShaSha's wishes causing the victims issues while she needs to pay off her debt to the shop. She finally pays it off after she joins a pirate crew and becomes one of it's best members.
- Shirtless Scene: On an unnamed extra, complete with Rachael Eating the Eye Candy.
- Shout-Out: Has its own page.
- Stock "Yuck!": Lydia clearly hates black licorice, as shown in this strip where she has a furnace specifically for getting rid of it. A dispenser to the far right seems to have red licorice, meaning she's fine with that kind.
- Take That!: Several are aimed at Michael Bay, some at Zack Snyder, and another at The Twilight Saga.
- The Stoic: Jennifer lasts three weeks in a job before her breakdown when most people only last three days and her boss only managed a day and a half.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Right in the first page, with the lady that spots her remarking on "radioactive lizards and whatnot," and again with the man who thinks he has heatstroke when Lydia passes him by with an umbrella that summons a blizzard around her.
