Let's face it: aside from the occasional Nodwick, the comics in dragon are not very good. I haven't laughed at them for a long time. So where have I gone to enjoy quality d&d comics:
http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript
The writer, Richard Burlew (who was one of the three finalists for WOTC's world and lost to Keith Baker, as well as writing the illusions spellcraft article in #324) writes hillarious comics, which crack me up every time. So I got to thnking, why not try to manipulate both him and dragon to get them to talk and put the funniest d&d comic in dragon! I've already posted a thread on his website's messageboards, so I'll do the same here now.
Dragon staff: look at the comics (111 so far), and you'll see how funny they are. Then beg him to have a monthly one in dragon.
Order of the Stick as a Dragon Comic. Great idea.
Who do I have to pester to get it done?
I'm not sure I agree -- although I'm a huge OotS fan.
From a logistics perspective, OotS is:
- A pretty large comic and
- A comic that relies upon a continuing storyline
If OotS moves to Dragon, how does that work? Does Rich stop doing it online and move to only doing it once per month? I like 2 per week much more than 1 per month. Does Rich take it offline but put a whole bunch of them in an issue of Dragon? That's going to require a lot of pages, given the sizes of his comics, or you're going to have to shrink things down a lot -- and the visuals are an important part of the presentation. Does Rich leave them up on his website and then put selected standalones up in Dragon? That's possible, but then there's the risk of people complaining about paying for their Dragon magazine and having some of its pages taken up with stuff they can get for free on the web.
These problems are by no means insurmountable, but as somebody who creates a large newsletter/small magazine every few months for my nonprofit, I can tell you that laying out something that was designed for a different format (figuring out how to show something on the page when it was designed for the Web) creates a lot of hassles at times.
Like I said, though -- I love OotS. I'd love to see them make it work somehow. Or I'd love for them to bring Rich in with some other project -- something that's designed for Dragon specifically but that has the same humor that makes OotS so wonderful.
Rich would create certain comics (presumably stand-alone) especially for the magazine, and it would be in addition to the regular ones. I know this because I posted a similar topic on the Giantitp messageboards.
That would be sooo cool! I suggested this a long time ago but i can't find my post on the forum anymore. Seriously, Dragon staff: the order of the stick rules. beg Rich to do the comic for your magazine. pretty please?
Oh yeah, OOTS rocks! Do it do it do it!
Have you guys seen the OOTS book you can pre-pre register for? If you really like OOTS and would like to support Richard, ordering one of those books is the way to go! Of course, I have a personal stake in this. If he sells more than 5000 copies, it means OOTS will appear every single day! Jay!
Oh yeah, and get him to do comics for dragon too.
by now nearly 3000 people have pre-ordered the book. He intends to quit his day job and become a professional cartoonist. They're just that good...
And the good news: he said a while back that he'd be willing to write comics for dragon/dungeon, but that he was waiting for them to come to him. Now is your chance, Paizo!
Elven Doritos casts geas/quest upon Paizo. "Get Mr. Burlew to write a monthly comic for you."
....Seriously, OotS is hilarious, you know you want to!
Personally, I would like to see the comics removed to make room for more game content. I always did like the create your own caption contest however.
Well, for what's worth, a comic made specifically for dragon from Richard Burlew would be a great thing. Maybe one featuring his campaign that got him in the WotC final. Hope to see a monthly column soon ...
I like Nodwick and the other comics in Dragon. More funny would be good, though.
That was hilarious. Those comics are great.
Does Rich take it offline but put a whole bunch of them in an issue of Dragon? That's going to require a lot of pages, given the sizes of his comics, or you're going to have to shrink things down a lot -- and the visuals are an important part of the presentation.
=D The irony here being that someone thinks visuals are an important part of the presentation for a comic whose main characters are all stick figures. lol
Well, I don't agree with the original poster that the current comics in Dragon (and Dungeon) aren't funnie. I lmao every single time I read Dork Tower. And even though Downer isn't necessarily funnie, I still like it. However, I wouldn't mind it at all if OotS replaced Nodwick or Zogonia and whatever that other little comic is that I never understand or simply never makes a point.
I love having comics on the whole. Most of us gamers are geeks ( I know I am) and it's good for us to be able to laugh at ourselves once in a while. I think it's all in good fun and it adds a nice levity to the magazine.
=D The irony here being that someone thinks visuals are an important part of the presentation for a comic whose main characters are all stick figures. lol
Actually, I've seen more range of emotion and better "action" from the OotS characters than I have from a lot of other comics. The facial expressions, body positioning, and movement of the characters all work to aid the actual written joke. And, in fact, there've been numerous times when the joke was purely visual - for example, the strip where Haley "searches" the door for traps.
Don't discount the artistic value of the comic just because it uses "stick" figures. Rich has quite a talent for conveying physical jokes along with verbal jokes.
Nodwick used to (still does??) little mini-strips based on the adventure or article that it was accompanying. Order of the Stick could be done that way as well, and would be awfully funny.
"Dragons - color coded for your convenience!"
Along those lines, I really liked the little strips that went along with the Dungeon adventures. I don't see them much anymore. There is a strip that sometimes shows up at the last page of an adventure, but it usually has nothing to do with the adventure and to be quite honest I don't think I've understood one of them yet.
SCORE! Starting from December, OoTS will be in Dragon. You can see quite clearly from the date this thread started (almost a year ago) that it was entirely my idea to begin with. I started this thread, and one on GiantITP forums, and planted the seed that has lead to this.
And if you excuse me, I will now go get Rich to give me 10% of the profits from this merger :)
Chief Technical Officer
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SCORE! Starting from December, OoTS will be in Dragon. You can see quite clearly from the date this thread started (almost a year ago) that it was entirely my idea to begin with. I started this thread, and one on GiantITP forums, and planted the seed that has lead to this.
And if you excuse me, I will now go get Rich to give me 10% of the profits from this merger :)
Ooh - but you weren't actually the first person on the messageboards to suggest we talk to Rich. You were beaten by a full month: http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/dungeon/generalDiscussion/comicsSugges tion.
Admittedly, that poster specified Dungeon, not Dragon....
-Vic.
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