Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D

Fun Read for Geeks
It was a fun read with a relatively light story. Felt like it could have been more in depth or informative, but it doesn’t dive particularly deep. Nevertheless, I learned a few things.

Rise of the Dungeon Master is an okay graphic novel, but falls short of being an excellent work.
Rise of the Dungeon Master is an okay graphic novel, but falls short of being an excellent work.Up front disclaimer—I was a writer and editor for Gary’s projects in the later years of his life and knew him pretty well. So I want to make sure I take note of any potential bias up from. Also, I am reviewing the paper copy of the book, not the Kindle edition. Take note that this is a black and white graphic novel, there’s no color art outside of the cover.At first, you would think a graphic novel of Gary Gygax’s life would be a very interesting work. I was interested in how the work would be presented, and if it would be an entertaining read. I am a gaming fan but I am also a long-time comics fan, and I have read many graphic novels, including biographical and autobiographical ones. Sadly, I only got a “meh” feeling from this project.What people may not know is that the author of this work (David Kushner) is more or less taking a lot of the graphic novel’s structure from a single article written shortly after Gary passed away in Wired magazine titled Dungeon Master: The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax. Much of the text in the work comes from this article, including most of the dialog and quotes. In short, this graphic novel is an adaptation of a magazine article, and not an original work designed for the format.You could still have a decent graphic novel from an article, but the new format has problems. The Wired article used what D&D players might know as “boxed notation”. That is, rather than just not narrate the article or use a third person narration device, the book’s chapters begin with narration in what might first appear to be “second person” narration, but it’s trying to evoke a dungeon master talking to the players in a tabletop RPG. While it is a decent device in the original article (which is aimed at people know are in the know about RPGs), it ends up not being good in the graphic novel—it makes for a very weird structure that isn’t as compelling. If the “you are” viewpoint was Gary Gygax’s, it might be good, but it switches to other people. I simply don’t think this works well unless you are “in the know” as a gamer…people who’ve never played D&D but want to learn about the subject are probably not going to be satisfied. I think it might have worked better if the graphic novel had more of a third party narration and also tried to tell the story via dialog, like a screenplay.For one already knowledgeable of the creation of D&D, there’s not a lot of stuff that is new to read. In fact, so much stuff is skipped over. Don Kaye (co-founder of TSR) appears, and a few of Gary’s relatives, but there’s not much about any early staff members or the growth of TSR. The narrative also takes some liberties with the order of things—for instance, the Gygax-Arneson lawsuit and settlement appears to occur as soon as Lorraine Williams takes over the company, but this was actually a few years before that. Instead, this graphic novel spends a little more time talking about the sensational controversies of D&D that happened in the early 1980, as well as also talking about the influence of D&D on the culture from computer games to celebrities who play it.Reviewing the artist—Koren Shadmi does a pretty good job of getting the likenesses of Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson well, at least in their elder day. I am not sure how much references Mr. Shadmi had. He’s a decent artist, some of his style reminds me a bit of Scott McCloud, but he’s also not what I would call in the “top tier” of comic book artists either. I’m not sure what he was using for references—it was easier to draw Gygax and Arneson in their recent years. There probably wasn’t much original research that I could see—it’s probably based on whatever public photos could be found—for instance, Lorraine Williams is portrayed almost exactly like the one photograph I am aware of (a photo in the D&D Anniversary boxed set, necklace and all). If the party at the beginning of the book was at Gary Gygax’s home at the time, he got the exterior and porch wrong, though it looks like the one interior shot might have been correct. (The old “famous” house where D&D was created and played in the basement is shown a few times). I was also disappointed by the fonts used—especially the one used in the narration blocks—it looks more like a horror font and not a font used for general exposition. I think a few good Comic Craft fonts would have been a good investment.I think the book is okay as a primer for somebody who doesn’t know anything about Gary Gygax and D&D’s creation, but only as that. I think long-time gamers would probably want something meatier, and fans of biographies might be put off by the odd structure and narrative skips. One person asked me if this was a good thing for younger kids to read. It could have been, but they have at least one F-bomb quote from Gary as well as mention a porn star who loved D&D, so I’m not sure this would be a good work for a pre-teen to read.I’m giving it 3 stars out of five. It’s an interesting work, but falls short of what I would want to see in a biographical graphic novel.

Overall a nice story. Some of the writing/dialogue was a little …
Overall a nice story. Some of the writing/dialogue was a little strange though. Good quality softcover but I don’t get why it was shorter than a typical comic book format.

Great primer to the origin of D&D
Great primer for those curious about the origin of D&D. VerY digestible and easy to complete in an hour or less.

Esperaba otra cosa, quizá detallado o extenso, aunque está entretenido.

If you are a fan of D&D and enjoy graphic novels, then this is a must have for your bookshelf. The writing is more simplistic than I would have liked but still worth it. Easily read in one sitting by even the slowest of readers.