Gary Gygax - the graphic novel

[scalydemon]

dmmagazine.blogspot.it/2017/01/hachette-announces-new-gary-gygax.html

Behold..

[foxroe]

Interesting... but "graphic novel"? And do bookstores really prefer that now?

[aldarron]

I don't think I'm in much danger of this, but I sincerely hope no one ever tries to reduce my life to a comic book.

[Deleted]

A new (appears to be a biography) Gygax book with an available date of May 9th, 2017 is being published. See Rise of the Dungeon Master by David Kushner

The author, David Kushner, is reportedly an award-winning journalist and author of many books, including three on gaming. Reading the "About the book" blurb does nothing to convince me of the depth of journalistic diligence. YMMV

[Deleted]

Merged @theperilousdreamer's thread on the graphic novel with this earlier one.


I've read some stuff by Dave Kushner over the years - he's a fairly good journalist, but I dislike that he seems to make "gaming business biographies" his schtick. I don't expect this one to be very deep - not just because of the format, but because deep work is not how Kushner tends to approach his projects.

[Deleted]

Jan 17, 2017 16:30:05 GMT -6 @rafael said:

Merged @theperilousdreamer's thread on the graphic novel with this earlier one.


I've read some stuff by Dave Kushner over the years - he's a fairly good journalist, but I dislike that he seems to make "gaming business biographies" his schtick. I don't expect this one to be very deep - not just because of the format, but because deep work is not how Kushner tends to approach his projects.

In other words, he is not a good journalist, if he doesn't take the time to get it right, such as his claim that Gygax invented the d20.

[Deleted]

Hehehehe, I got a chuckle out of this, TPD. I'm gonna say, "form your own opinion": Kushner has written two books on gaming industry history, and both, while well-written, were almost universally criticized for their superficial research. Now, in general, I'm not a fan of books, like Kushner writes, that include their summary in their subtitle. And so, that a guy who apparently likes to be sloppy with the details would be targeting something as complex and nuanced as the genesis of D&D is not something I personally would particularly welcome.

That all said, let's not slaughter the lamb before we weigh it: Let's see the graphic novel first, before we jump to conclusions. I'm not holding my breath, though.

[Deleted]

BTW, even though all of you well know that I'm surely more of an "Arneson Man" than I'm connected to Greyhawk, my opinion on this is not related to, whatever, the fear of having another round in the endless "Gygax vs. Arneson" debate: It's that I see the fingerprints of Gail Gygax all over this, who tries to market her deceased husband's biography over his actual accomplishments for RPG culture. Which seems to be a mistake. - Instead of all of this, I'd rather like to see something RPG-related.

[scalydemon]

I'm thinking it will be light reading as it is a comic book/GN, supposed to be told from a 1st person perspective so I doubt too much controversial history stuff will appear. More in tone to try and appeal to the masses that read comics currently and maybe used to play D&D (or still do!)

[scalydemon]

It is supposedly based on this article and visit
archive.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2008/03/ff_gygax?currentPage=all#

[Deleted]

I have to say, I'm not sure whether to be all too happy about this. The portrayal of the Gygax-Arneson relationship in the article is "innocent", to say the least. If Arneson is now somehow portrayed inaccurately, this will only serve to fabricate rifts between fans that in reality are not there. Not sure if Kushner or the Gygax Trust backed this pie, but it smells bad already.