COMIC STRIPS ® KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE PUBLISHER Kenzer and Company 10 Occupied EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 11 Roof Top Jolly R. Blackburn • [email protected] ASSISTANT EDITOR 12 Proxy Moxy Barbara Blackburn • [email protected] 16 The Pitch KODT DEVELOPMENT TEAM Jolly R. Blackburn • Steve Johansson 24 Dry Run David S. Kenzer • Brian Jelke • Barbara Blackburn (+1) 30 You Lookin’ at Me...? HACKMASTER EDITOR Steve Johansson • [email protected] 63 One-Two Punches KODT STRIP ART Jolly R. Blackburn COVER ART George Vrbanic CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Brendon Fraim • Brian Fraim Larry Elmore • Carolyn Stogdill Bill “Indy” Cavalier • Ken Harrison • Anthony Cervino OTHER TOONS CONTRIBUTING WRITERS 61 SnarfQuest™ Kenneth Newquist • James Davenport Larry Elmore Noah Chinn • Barbara Blackburn • Benjamin Lomax Jolly R. Blackburn • Larry Elmore • 64 Additional Cartoons J.L. Duncan • Alan Hume • Paul Dunford SALES/MARKETING/ADVERTISING Bill “Indy” Cavalier, Carolyn Stogdill, Steve Johansson • [email protected] • 847-858-6847 Anthony Cervino, Ken Harrison SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES [email protected] CHARMED PERSONS Sample file Kevin Vance • Jack Grayson • Craig Zipse PRINTED IN U.S.A. Postmaster: Send address changes to: ABOUT Knights of the Dinner Table THE COVER 1659 N CLAREMONT AVE, CHICAGO, IL 60647 E-Mail: [email protected] • Phone: 847.662.6600 Longtime KODT World Wide Web: www.kenzerco.com cover artist, George Submissions: We accept submissions for strip ideas, jokes, cartoons, Vrbanic is back etc. We are interested in running anything that other gamers and fans this month with would enjoy. Check out our website for writer’s guidelines. this spoof of Subscriptions: A standard 12-issue monthly subscription is only Planet of the Apes. $77.99 (or $65.99 for slower bulk mail shipping). [US $92.99 for Canada or US $117.99 for other foreign locations.] 6- and 24-issue subscriptions are also available. To subscribe, order by credit card at our online store at HTTP://WWW.KENZERCO.COM or send a check or money order (made payable to Kenzer and Company) to: NIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE™ was accidentally created by Jolly R. Blackburn Kway back in 1990 as ‘filler’ for his small press magazine, Shadis. It was Kenzer & Company KODT Subscriptions, something of a ‘creative burp’ and Jolly really didn’t give it much thought. 1659 N Claremont Ave, Chicago, IL 60647 Perhaps that’s why he was just as surprised as anyone that soon KODT was overshadowing everything else he’d ever done and that the created was now Back Issues: Older issues and other KODT merchandise are avail- able for direct purchase on our website at HTTP://WWW.KENZERCO.COM controlling the creator. The Knights have gone far beyond anything Jolly or the D-Team (David Kenzer, Brian Jelke, Steve Johansson and Barbara Blackburn) ever imagined. In 2006, Jolly was ATTENTION RETAILERS: If you are having difficulty getting our inducted into the Hall of Fame. Now, with over 238 issues and over 71 trade paper backs under product (including back issues and RPGs) please call or e-mail us. their belts, it’s been a wild ride and we look forward to seeing where the Knights take us next. Knights of the Dinner Table® #238 3 WHERE ART THOU, MONA...? ell last issue, I kind of sorta wrote out a care. (My guess is most won’t. But I’ve been wrong character from the pages of KODT. Only the before). W second time I’ve ever done that (Well, three I will say that part of the reason is for the very reasons if you count Gary’s death years ago. Edmund Finley was my wife loved the character. I just felt she didn’t add the second). I feel like I have blood on my hands. much to the table dynamic and mix of characters. She My wife and I were riding along in the car while I was was something of a creative speed bump. And to be making voice recorder notes on the strips lined up for honest — I’ve long wondered how the table dynamic #237. Just little mental pegs to hang ideas on so they would change if I swapped someone else in to fill her weren’t forgotten. seat. When I flipped on the recorder and said, “Remember to include Moe’s exit from Patty’s table...”, I could see my Who...? A lot of people seem to have their favorite wife turn toward me as she looked at me in shock. candidates but you’ll have to wait to see. “What....?” Before closing this month, I want to thank each and “I have to get rid of her,” I confessed. every reader who subscribes or who nags their FLGS to It’s one of the few times my wife and I have disagreed carry the magazine. You guys keep the lights on and on a development in the comic. bellies full here. You allow us to keep doing what we love From her point of view, Moe (a woman) is one of the — making games and writing comics. A privelege none few characters who seems ‘normal’. No glaring character of us take for granted. flaws. She gets along with everyone. She seems pleasant. Hope you enjoy the issue in hand. And as always — I should point out that neither character’s exit is may all your hits be crits!! irreversible. Both have simply moved on, to somewhereSample file “else”. Naturally, readers usually want to know why. So why would I want to get rid of her...? I’m not going Jolly Blackburn to give my full reasons here. That strip/issue hasn’t hit the October 20, 2016 street yet as I write this, so it’s still unclear if readers even 20 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH: This strip appeared in Dragon Magazine issue #234 October 1996) 4 Knights of the Dinner Table® #238 teve Johannson and myself were invited out to NukeCon in Nebraska this past month. nzercon was a hit this September. Great con, well organized Sand jut the size we like — right there where there plenty of events and things to do but not too many people that it begins to feel crowded. We ran demos of HackMaster and the Great Space Race, and held the first Knight of the Dinner Table Live Reading we’ve offcially held in a few years to boot. We haven’t had a lot of opportunities to visit cons in this neck of the country but we’re happy to report they roll their dice the same as the rest of us. ;) It was great seeing new faces and making a few friends. We hope to be back. — Jolly. Sample file Knights of the Dinner Table® #238 5 WILL DUTY, sir. GREYLOND...? isn’t that’s right sir. that the guy who aka GREYLOND. WANDERS the he’s like the country — going JOHNNY APPLESEED he’s actually from GAMESHOP of TABLE TOP RPG. darn good. to GAMESHOP? he runs a “THE GAMING TOUGH but NOMAD” friendly table. \ think they call him. not a BAD choice, actually — unfortunately no one and their knows how to get in THIRD TOUCH with him. pick...? or where he’ll pop up next. Wizards RPG. But here’s the kicker, I’m looking at I write to you now because last issue you got the Wizards book and it was published by who...? me right in the feels, Mr. Blackburn. First, your Whit Publications. Written by.... yep. Ken editorial on the passing of Will Duty was so fitting. Whitman — the guy who failed to deliver the Like you, I didn’t know Will well — only at the EDITOR’S NOTE: The mail just never KODT Live Action Series kickstarter. Talk about gaming table. But he seemed kind hearted and seems to stop. While we make every nine degrees of separation. The folded ad has passionate about gaming and we spent quite a effort to read each and every letter, it is literally been in that book for twenty years. not always possible to give a personal few hours looking across the gaming table at each reply. Even if your letter doesn’t happen to be I just had to share that. other battling wits. published or if you don’t get a direct response, rest Chad Williams 7 Then I got to the strips and was surprised to read his name fall from the lips of Gary Jackson assured you are being heard. That is indeed a blast from the past, Chad. himself. What a marvelous tribute. I know Will Remember, KODT is an interactive Thanks for sending that scan. I haven’t thought of was a huge Knights fan and I know he would magazine. We want you, the reader, to be involved. that ad (or seen it in years). Those ads ran in Shadis So keep your suggestions, thoughts and opinions as part of my buy out agreement with AEG. It also have approved. Thanks for that. (constructive and otherwise) coming. Opinions ran in Dragon Magazine as part of my payment One other thing I wanted to relate to you that expressed by readers are not necessarily shared by for the strp when it moved there. It was a strange I’ve been meaning to write you about. I really the editor or Kenzer and Company. Please be aware but wonderfulSample time. I thought perhaps file I could make enjoy your editorials. And I also love it when your that due to space considerations, some letters have KODT work as a monthly for a few years before wife steps in to do them for you. Someone else been edited and/or trimmed.