Rise of the Dungeon Master
Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D
Ratings8
Average rating3.8
Rise of the Dungeon Master tells, in graphic form, the story of Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, one of the most influential games ever made. Like the game itself, the narrative casts the reader into the adventure from a first person point of view, taking on the roles of the different characters in the story. Gygax was the son of immigrants who grew up in Lake Geneva, WI, in the 1950s. An imaginative misfit, he escaped into a virtual world based on science fiction novels, military history and strategic games like chess. In the mid-1970s, he co-created the wildly popular Dungeons & Dragons game. Starting out in the basement of his home, he was soon struggling to keep up with the demand. Gygax was a purist, in the sense that he was adamant that players use their imaginations and that the rules of the game remain flexible. A creative mind with no real knowledge of business, he made some strategic errors and had a falling out with the game's co-creator, his close friend and partner, David Arneson. By the late 1970s the game had become so popular among kids that parents started to worry -- so much so that a mom's group was formed to alert parents to the dangers of role play and fantasy. The backlash only fueled the fires of the young fans who continued to play the game, escaping into imaginary worlds. Before long, D&D conventions were set up around the country and the game inspired everything from movies to the first video games. With D&D, Gygax created the kind of role playing fantasy that would fuel the multibillion dollar video game industry, and become a foundation of contemporary geek culture.
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My love for Dungeons & Dragons starts during the pandemic. The beautyness of the stories told using the most famous roleplaying game of all time captured me and brought me in this wonderful world. As a huge fan of D&D, one of my greatest curiosities was around the birth of this tabletop experience, and while searching for a gift for a friend, I have found “Rise of the Dungeon Master”, a graphic novel about the theme. This comic is the adaptation of a famous Weird article about Gary Gynax made by David Kushner, with the drawings of Koren Shadmi, an isreali author. The style of this creation is not one of my favourites. I don't like the “adult-swim” inspiration Shadmi has, and I find the amount of content found by Kushner impossible to reduce to a single volume. Despite that, those are little critiques to a huge operation.
The entire production starts from the rise of D&D, his first ideas and the debt it has with the tabletop war games, coming to the last moments of the creator of this marvellous universe.
Rise of the Dungeon Master is an heartwarming tribute to a cultural movement more than to a simple game. Using he great technique of investigative journalism, Kushner and Shadmi perfectly portrayed all the figures who contributed to this success: Dave Arneson is the light-hearted dreamer searching for the funniest game; the videogame developers are personalities ready for tributes and new creations expanding the base; William Dear is a meticulous private detective ready to hunt down D&D and than chaning the opinion on the game. All these names are little encounters in the life of a hero. Gary Gynax is the tormented author the readers loves these days, but he shows so hard his geek lifestyle to represent those kids fighting for their passions. The atmospheres and the emotional impact of this incredible reportage have the power of memories and meloncholy, with a supported rhythm similar to one-shots and campaings made with friends.
STYLE: 3
SCREENPLAY: 4
RHYTHM: 5
REPORTAGE QUALITY: 3,5
CHARACTERS: 5
ATMOSPHERE: 4
EMOTIONAL IMPACT: 5
FINAL VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Fun. I appreciated that the women were present in the graphics even if they apparently only come in child and barbie models.
I don't recall reading this in 2017, oops.
But I enjoyed it more this time around, amending the rating to 4 stars.
I thought it was interesting that he didn't care for Tolkien, but I'm not surprised that he enjoyed Conan the barbarian.
Also amused that I got a text from my D&D group as I was reading it.
D&D felt like a huge part of my childhood. I played with my dad, my ‘uncle' (long time family friend) would DM, and usually a cousin and best friend would join in too. It was hard for my mom to get a game that didn't have an end, but it got us to think critically, use math, and be artistic/creative.
Now I work with kids and I've heard from parents that D&D (or perhaps the more general concept of table top role playing games) has been used to help kids: face fears, work as a group, connect with other kids, think about consequences, gain confidence, make choices, and so on.
