Small press comic book created by
John Kovalic. It started clear back in 1997, when it was published in
Shadis Magazine. It is now published by
Dork Storm Press.
It tells the ongoing story of four guys -- hapless gamemaster
Matt McLimore, intellectual fanboy
Ken Mills, raving munchkin
Igor Olman, and good-natured
Carson the Muskrat (a
muskrat who Kovalic had previously drawn in a
comic strip called "
Wild Life"). All of them like to play
roleplaying games and indulge in various
geeky activities. In between playing
games like
GORPS,
Squid Leader, and
Warhamster 40,000 (and
ruining Matt's carefully constructed
Lord of the Rings game by immediately killing
Gandalf), they get addicted to
eBay, get chased out of
bookstores (for the allegedly inherent Satanism of roleplaying games), and get
obsessive about everything from collecting
miniatures to watching
Star Wars marathons.
Important
supporting cast members include Matt's primary love interest,
Gilly Woods -- better known as
Gilly the Perky Goth -- whose
sunny attitude makes her the bane of the local
goth community;
Walden Woods, Gilly's long-suffering older brother and the leader of the local goths; prim and oh-so-respectable
Kayleigh Hardcastle, Matt's snooty girlfriend and official disapprover of all his hobbies;
Sujata Murthy, Ken's improbably hot girlfriend, who is gleefully throwing herself into geek culture; and
Bill Blyden, the much-abused owner of
Pegasaurus Games.
"Dork Tower" is characterized by a deceptively
simple art style -- it all looks like it was slapped together fast, but after a second look, the strip's
sophistication comes through. Kovalic has said that "
Peanuts" creator
Charles M. Schulz was a major
influence, and the
cartoonists' styles are indeed very similar. And is it any mistake that Matt is a mostly-
bald guy, has a bit of a
hangdog attitude, hangs out with an
anthropomorphic mammal, and sometimes wears a shirt with a
zigzag design?
Besides the comic books, "Dork Tower" is also published online and in several different comic and gaming magazines.
Some research from http://www.dorktower.com