The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 238: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons #9, August 1989

133 days later, we return to the city of Waterdeep and the lovable group of rogues we've been following through its environs.

First things first, I really hate Timoth's haircut. There. I've said it. He should have gone to the barber in Waterdeep that I recommended. Anyway...

The AD&D comic is good for numerous reasons, many of which I've laid out in my previous posts. What strikes me with today's comic is that the series manages a really great balance of humour and adventure, which is really the maximal experience of a role-playing game. They're social events, and one is generally inclined to not only pursue an adventure, but have a few laughs with friends as well. It does, admittedly, rely a lot on how the DM wants to run the game, but I've been involved in very, very few sessions in which something comedic didn't happen, either intentionally or unintentionally. Those critical fails can make for some amusing, if dangerous, moments.

What the comic does have over and above the RPG is that when a party splits up, as Timoth and Onyx do here, it's not a ridiculous inconvenience for the Dungeon Master. I'm curious as to whether these characters are based on actual PCs, and if the stories are based on actual adventures in Waterdeep. I imagine there'd have to be a whole bunch of co-authors, if that were the case. At any rate, it's nice to see the characters each getting a spotlight, something that I've been noting over in my Alpha Flight posts as well. Often times when we read team books, we forget that teams are made up of individuals. That said, I am hoping that we'll see the whole team together again soon. Perhaps in the next story arc.

I've discovered that I only need 14 issues of this series to have the complete run, and I've found a place that has most of those issues for $1. Thus it's actually cheaper for me to get the individual issues than to invest in the admittedly gorgeous IDW reprints of the series. Hopefully this coming weekend, I'll fill out the series, and we can thrill to more adventures. I am, however, set for at least a week without a hole in the run, so we'll see more of Timoth, Onyx, and you, tomorrow.