Dork Decade

Dork Tower #9

by John Kovalic

Ten years ago this month, the Dork Tower comic strip premiered in the pages of Shadis Magazine. To celebrate the anniversary, every strip from Shadis and every strip from Dragon Magazine are being reprinted here in chronological order. Dork Decade is the first full-colour Dork Tower collection ever, and contains authors' notes, tons of extra material, developmental sketches, and surprise guest appearances!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Humor

144 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2006

About the author

John Kovalic’s cartoons have appeared everywhere from his hometown WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL (Madison, WI) to the NEW YORK TIMES and DRAGON MAGAZINE. His creations include the sell-out comic book sensation DORK TOWER and “DR. BLINK: SUPERHERO SHRINK,” as well as SNAPDRAGONS, NEWBIES, WILD LIFE, BEACHED, and panel cartoons including MURPHY’S RULES, THE UNSPEAKABLE OAF and others.

A co-founder and co-owner of Out of the Box Games, and a cartoonist for Steve Jackson Games, John has illustrated over 100 games and game supplements, and is at least in part responsible for best-sellers like APPLES TO APPLES (A GAMES Magazine Hall of Fame inductee) , MUNCHKIN, CHEZ GEEK and BLINK. He is closing in on 4,000 MUNCHKIN cards drawn, and boy, are his arms tired.

He was the first cartoonist inducted into the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) Hall of Fame. In his spare time, John searches for spare time.

You can also read about how he got his wife into the National Enquirer.

The lovely and talented JUDITH, BTW, is world-famous now that she works at Michael Feldman’s Whad’Ya Know.

Reviews

[Jasper O. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hilarious series of comics in which every nerd, geek, or gamer (or their friends and partners) will recognize themselves. It pokes fun at the highs and the lows of nerddom, at the wonderful and annoying people we meet along the way, and at both the fantasy and the capitalism of the gaming world. I laughed a lot, I'd recommend this to anyone who is, or knows, a major roleplaying geek.

[***Dave Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of the early Dork Tower comic strips, from their prototypes to humor that still rings true (even when topical to the time) today.

Note that there are notes to many of the strips at the back of the book, rather than on the pages the strips run on. It's clumsy, easy to miss, and a pain to go back and look at later.

Good stuff. I'd still loan it to a beginning fantasy gamer today, even if the field really has opened up to far more than the D&D trope.

[F. Malanoche · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found two or three issues of this series at a local store and loved everything about it. I ordered book one and loved it even more. It is a hilarious recap of what life was like for gamers and goths against society that isn't copacetic with such interests. Like Go, Dork, Go, this issue focuses on a collection of comic strips rather than continue the story line that was left on a cliff hanger in Dork Side of the Moon. The major story will continue in Tao of Igor.

[Lady Entropy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was... okay. I still don't love this as much as Knights of the Dinner Table but I love Kovalic, so....

I think it's the obsession with "getting a girlfriend", and six volumes in and we're still doing the "Kaleygh or Jillian" thing.

[Thom · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of the strips from Shadis and Dragon - some of the latter were new to me. Also contained a "final strip" that was not printed in Shadis - the issue scheduled never appeared.