10. HOW THE GRUUMSH STOLE NEEDFEST

The annual Needfest comic is both my most stressful and most satisfying time to put out a comic (I'm already feeling the pressure to make a new one as I write this review). This parody needs little explaining which is why the idea was a gold mine. The Grinch is one of my childhood favorite cartoons of all time, which is why this one 'drew itself' easily for me. I remember literally laughing out loud at work when Gruumsh's name popped into my head and instantly the image of this green cyclopean villain appeared in my mind. It was like my destiny to do this comic. However, what I didn't bargain on initially was how HARD it is to do Suessian rhyming. Adapting the original text of the story to a Greyhawk story was a challenge and a half. Luckily I had some verbose help from Brian 'Cebrion' McRae, who is always perched on my shoulder around the holiday season. Beyond the literature aspect, I admire this comic for the heavy use of obscure elven gods(kudos to anyone who can name them all by sight) and the Hell Hound with an antler, that critter was fun to draw. Also drawing the whole thing in a Suessian-style wasn't easy but it was definitely a change of pace. Since this comic, I dread every Christmas episode from here on, because the Gruumsh is a very hard act to top.

9. THE GRAZ'ZT SHOW

One late Wednesday night I was brainstorming how to use Graz'zt for the first time in my comics. There was alot going on with demons in Dragon/Dungeon Magazine so I wanted to get on board. But unfortunately I couldn't think of anything directly funny about Graz'zt that night plus I had no other comic ideas in line for Thursday. Then procrastination worked its magic. Out of nowhere I tell ya, this idea sprung into my head to make Graz'zt a talk show host. What would be more chaotic and strange than an abyssal TV program? I was jazzed with this idea because the point of talk shows is for guests to pimp their products or for the host to make fun of pop culture. This meant Graz'zt now had a forum to talk about anything Greyhawk or D&D related, but with his own evil twist on things. The other neat thing about the talk show concept is the format: intro, monologue, some recurring skit like the Top Ten List, first guest, second guest, music guest, etc. Its a gold mine for comedic situations and I've only scratched the surface of what Graz'zt can accomplish. That is unless his show gets cancelled before then...

8. MINI FUN

If Wizards did one thing good for my comic it was making prepainted plastic minis of Greyhawk figures. I admit I don't own any of them (I use stills) but the first time I actually held the Aspect of Kord mini at the shop where I game on Mondays, the idea immediately formed. I'm just shocked it took me 70 issues to think of doing this. After all one of my favorite comics to read is Irregular Webcomic which makes use of minis on a regular basis. The fact I've only used the Aspect minis is remarkable, since out of the hundreds they've produced (most of which suck), some enterprising webcomic artist could do an D&D mini comic quite easily (hint hint anyone?). Anyhoo, in the world of W.o.G the minis are just that, minis played with by the hand of gamer gods like Kord, Hextor or even Demogorgon?! This specific mini comic started the ball rolling and it was a big hit. The Arnoldesque dialogue Kord uses cracks me up everytime I re-read the strip. One of these days I'll do some different mini episodes, I've got a few unused GH minis tucked away for a rainy day. ;)

7. GODS IN SPACE

What can I say about Gods in Spaaace? It's one of my pet projects because it's a parody of many things I love; Greyhawk, the Muppet Show, serialized space operas and with some Spelljammer thrown in. Now I have never ran Spelljammer but I do own the SJ product Greyspace, so I've always been keenly aware of the setting and the strange mysteries of Oerth's crystal sphere(Thanks go to Maldin for his insight). Added to this was my discovery long ago in Greyhawk Ruins that Zagig had a Wasp spelljamming ship hid in the Crystalmist Mountains. Then I considered Zagig's possible crew for that ship. Conveniently the 1E Greyhawk Glossography had lists of his frequent adventuring partners (Murlynd was an inspired choice and Celestian was just too perfect). This was all the ingredients I needed for an epic that in the long run should encompass several story arcs (1 of which is finished). This was the first time in my comic that I intentionally started something with a self-contained continuity rather than jumbled random strips. The first comic of this series is by no means the funniest I've done but it definitely set the tone for the ones that followed. As I rocket on toward issue #300 I guarantee you'll see alot more of Gods in Space.

6. MODULE PARODY

Very early in my comic career I still had an abundant amount of Greyhawk sources left to parody. One of my best projects out of that first year was the module cover parodies. Much of what makes Greyhawk special is contained in these colorful 1st edition adventures with their evocative titles, iconic illustrations and pulpy cover blurbs. And believe me, you don't know how hard it is to write a concise and compelling blurb until you try it, my hat is off to those pioneering module cover designers. The cover I chose to begin the series with was my favorite of all time of course, the uber-deadly Tomb of Horrors. This parody was the debut of Vecna who would later go on to be in many of my comic strips. My second parody cover came shortly after this one and was a send up of the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. Doing a layout in the classic module style was challenging enough but so was mimicking the art of the cover I was parodying. The green cover edition of the Tomb of Horrors was the angular art of Dave Sutherland and Tsojcanth was stylistically illustrated by the one and only Erol Otus. Those two and many more cover artists are homaged in my Module Parody Bookshelf. Check it out.

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