Since last week we got to experience one of the great inspirations for Dungeons & Dragons, a pinnacle of the nerd universe, I figured this week we should jump to the more recent end of things, and talk about a comic which owes its very existence to D&D. It also coincidentally gives me the chance to bring up another topic near and dear to my heart: webcomics!

Written and drawn by Rich Burlew, whose previous claim to fame was coming in second in the Wizards of the Coast setting contest that produced Eberron, the Order of the Stick began its life as a gag strip, and a parody at that; poking fun at the various tropes of D&D. In the first strip, we meet our heroes in media res as they fought a troop of goblins in a nameless dungeon, quipping about the then recent 3.5 rules update.

Making jokes about spot checks and gaming cliches, OOTS chuckled and gaffawed its way through the first couple of dozen strips. Now typically at this point the aspirant comic-stripper realizes that with cookie-cutter characters and no plot, a series is going to quickly get stale.

Some, like Penny-Arcade, or the smash hit of last year, XKCD, manage to exist at this point indefinitely in a state of comedic equilibrium. For others, it's time to step the plot and characterization up a notch. This is often a horrible mistake. The intertubes are clogged with the wreckage of countless webcomics that were once funny, but have in later days fallen prey to an excess of plot. Some become mired in soap-opera relationships and pathos, a la Something Positive, while some degenerate in endless plot arcs that never end. Goats and Sluggy Freelance, I'm looking at you.



Rarely, ever so rarely, you have a creator who can tell a story and a joke at the same time. Order of the Stick is one such comic. Burlew employs a witty style, punctuated with an occational slap-stick turn, a pun or two, and the obligatory D&D jokes that are the heart and soul of the operation. At the same time, Burlew has managed to sneak in a campaign that any gamer would give his left foot to play in.

The story in brief involves the eponymous Order of the Stick, a band of adventurers on a quest to destroy the evil lich Xykon. Xykon meanwhile is on a quest of his own to gain control over a mystic gateway beyond which lies a source of unimaginable power. Okay, so maybe it's a fairly hackneyed plot... but the characterization is amazing.



Drawn in a deceptively simple, faux stick figure style, Burlew has accidentally created a highly iconic world for himself. The comic is drawn using vector graphics, so the art doesn't vary much from strip to strip; however, Burlew is obviously a talented artist, and his skill comes through in his ability to portray complex settings and deep emotions with simple details. Over the course of the series his art has evolved tremendously.

The Order of the Stick archive is available for free at www.giantitp.com (that's Giant in the Playground), along with new strips posted ad hoc, roughly 3 times a week. You can also pick up most of the series from your friendly local comic book shop in 2 trade paperback collections, including some bonus strips and author commentary, and 2 print-only prequel books covering how the Order formed, and the history of Xykon.

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Tobiah Panshin was born in the backwoods of Pennsylvania, taught all he knows by the animal companions that raised him. As many fine naturalists will however note, Badgers and Woodchucks are notoriously bad at algebra. His math and science skills doomed from an early age, young Tobiah followed the only path available to him: the Humanities. Today, Liberal Arts degree in hand, he pursues with the dogged determination of a short-tailed shrew the pathetic, poverty bestrewn life of a writer. Armed with the strongest weapons he possesses--the umlaut, the gerund phrase, and the mighty schwa--he battles the English Language in a never-ending struggle for domination.