Four friends do battle with trolls, Snow Beasts and a raging Gazebo, but mostly each other, in the pages of Knights of the Dinner Table.
Randy:
Kenzer and Company is a publisher that is well-known in gaming circles, both for their long-running Knights of the Dinner Table comics and for their Dungeons & Dragons "Kingdoms of Kalamar" sourcebooks. In comics, however, they're one of any number of small comics publishers, and they sent Don and I copies of both their earliest and their latest for review.
Don:
Among the small publishers, though, Kenzer & Company is a name that stands out. I'd seen their books on store shelves before, and seen their solicitations in Previews. But I'd never sampled their gaming-oriented fare until now.
Knights of the Dinner Table Bundle of Trouble Vol. 1
published by Kenzer & Company
written & illustrated by Jolly R. Blackburn
Don:
B.A. is a frustrated gamemaster who has incredible difficulty in controlling his immature players -- Brian, Dave and Billy, collectively known as "the Untouchable Trio." A new elements enters their gaming circle, though, as Sara, an experienced and confident gamer, comes into the fold. Interspersed with their argument-laden gaming sessions are encounters with Weird Pete, the owner of the local gaming store.
Randy:
Honestly, I wasn't completely new to this material. I'm a gamer and a comics fan, and the store I work at is a hybrid as well, so I've read Knights of the Dinner Table. Even reviewed it, once or twice, before it became clear to me that there's not much new to say about the issues from a reviewing standpoint, and it hardly matters, as Knights of the Dinner Table is a "love it or hate it" comic, with little middle ground.
Don:
I come to the book with a different perspective. I'm not a gamer, and have never read Blackburn's strips before. Mind you, there was a time when I did a little gaming, and Knights of the Dinner Table reminds me of the reasons I left it behind. If anything, Blackburn hits the mark too well; instead of spoofing the world of gaming, he simply spotlights its problems and none of the fun.
Randy:
Personally, I like it. It's not a comic that stands the test of time, as the jokes of gamer interaction and bickering tend to get a little old, and after a while, even the new twists that Blackburn puts in starts to make it feel like we've seen it all before. Fortunately, KODT (as it is often abbreviated) has a huge audience of faithful gamers, not to mention an abundance of new gamers who haven't heard the jokes, to keep it going. In addition, in rereading the Bundle of Trouble, it's clear to me that the characterization did grow to some extent, as the original strips really make B.A. and Sara out to be just as bad as the rest of the group in terms of pettiness and rules-lawyering, and I was surprised to see B.A. turning and making fourth-wall-breaking asides at the ends of some of the strips.
Bundle of Trouble, and Knights of the Dinner Table in general, is a gamer's strip, and unlike competing comics like PVP or Dork Tower, in general non-gamers need not apply. The style of the book is aimed at those who play games or know a lot of gamers like this, but have some fondness for them as well, and it seems unlikely that someone who hasn't played role-playing games would really get most of the jokes or care overly much about them if they did.
Don:
Actually, as a non-gamer, my problem was that I didn't see jokes, but some awkward and uncomfortable truths... at least from my perspective. I don't mean to put down gamers in general; I know some pleasant level-headed ones (not Randy, of course, but others -- I kid). The pettiness of gaming -- which, in my experience, is not uncommon -- is what's spotlighted here, and personally, I didn't find it to be all that much fun to read about it.
Knights of the Dinner Table Illustrated #17
published by Kenzer & Company
written by Mark Plemmons
illustrated by Brendon & Brian Fraim
edited by Brian Jelke
Don:
The Untouchable Trio follow Zayre, a woodland barbarian woman, into the lair of a throng of deadly trolls. The nasty little underground creatures prove to pose little threat to the four medieval adventurers, but those that dwell even further within the caves are far more deadly.
Randy:
KODT Illustrated is a spinoff of the original title, exploring not what happens on the other side of the gaming table but what happens in the world that the gamers are created. Given that Blackburn's abilities with the art are, to be generous, passable at best, the original idea combined fantasy parody artist Aaron (Nodwick) Williams with the popular humor of the Knights of the Dinner Table crew. It seemed like a pretty good match, at the time.
Unfortunately, KODT Illustrated left me painfully bored from the start, and sixteen issues later, little has changed. The approach that writer Plemmons takes is too straightforward, and while the humor is meant to be there either through knowledge of the source material or more clever visual humor, it's not. Instead, this looks like a standard (and fairly boring) fantasy comic based on a role-playing game, more concerned with combat and neat monsters and treasures than plot or characterization. Plemmons is writing about stories which are so anachronistic and driven by short-sighted, greedy players that they should be hysterical, but instead of playing up that contrast, he delivers it all in the most plain manner possible.
Don:
While I found the story to be oversimplified, I rather enjoyed the juxtaposition of the everyday colloquial tone of the "players" creeping into the world of swords and sorcery. It carries with it a lot more in the way of comedic potential, if you ask me. Still, there's so much more the writer could be doing with it. The story gallops along at a brisk pace, barely making room for the main action, let alone subplots and characterization.
Randy:
It doesn't help that the Fraims's artwork is capable but little more. The entire story is told in full page panels, but not one of them features an impressive background, monster or character in it. The humor of Zayre stripping naked because another player took over her character is completely lost, and even the potentially funny gag of Zayre's naughty bits being constantly covered by convenient props or sound effects isn't played up.
Don:
I was wondering why Sara's character would be naked; it just wasn't in keeping with her personality in the other book. In any case, I think the storytelling is hindered by the exclusive use of splash pages. That's why it reads so quickly and lacks the room to explore the characters in any depth. Maybe this isn't the norm for the series; I don't know. But the method just doesn't work here.
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