Knights of the Dinner Table Illustrated Issue: #31

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Knights of the Dinner Table Illustrated
Issue: #31
Date: February 2004
Publisher: Kenzer and Company
Writer: Mark Plemmons, Brendon Fraim, Brian Fraim
Artist: Brendon Fraim, Brian Fraim
Editor: Brian Jelke
Cover: Brendon Fraim, Brian Fraim

Knuckles takes Teflon Billy out for a night on the town, nut what begins with a bit of romance with some lovely dwarven ladies quickly progresses into robbery, revenge, mayhem, and a late-night trip to the city jail.

The previous issue (reviewed here) explored some serious themes. This story was all-out D&D character behaving badly and raising hell. It was worth a couple of chuckles, but I actually preferred the more serious take in the previous issue.

That being said, this story had several entertaining plot twists, and some good action once things got going. It wasn't bad. I just felt at times like the poor GM. Not laughing as hard as the players were.

Rating 6/10

Knights of the Dinner Table Illustrated #30

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Knights of the Dinner Table Illustrated
Issue: #30
Date: January 2004
Publisher: Kenzer and Company
Writer: Mark Plemmons, Brendan Fraim, Brian Fraim
Artist: Brendon Fraim, Brian Fraim
Editor: Brian Jelke, Eric Englehard
Cover: Brendon Fraim, Brian Fraim

So, this is my first time reading this series. Knights of the Dinner Table is a funny gag strip about a group of middle-aged tabletop roleplaying gamers. The "Illustrated" version is the in-character version of the story, starring the player-characters, El Ravager, Knuckles, Thorina, and Teflon Billy.

A love-spell has turned El Ravager against his companions, and they fight a desparate stalling action to try to find a way to bring him back to his senses, which the villainous Lord Skrall looks on (and takes a moment or two to explain his evil plans).

This story did a good job of starting with a fairly complex setup, and coordinating the moving pieces to make it accessible, even to a reader jumping in at issue #30.

There is a sprinkling of fourth-wall-breaking humor (these are roleplaying characters, after all), a couple of genuinely emotional moments, and in between there is plenty of good, fast-paced sword-and-sorcery action.

Fun story. I have the next issue and I'm looking forward to checking it out.

Rating: 7.5/10