Review of Knights of the Dinner Table, Illustrated

It's weird. People pay good money for the same jokes they've already bought -- a classic example is the 'Mad Super Special', which just reprints prior issues with some small amounts of new material. Now, further advancing this trend, we have Knights Of The Dinner Table Illustrated, which, on the surface, does nothing more than retell the same gags we can read in the original KODT -- or buy again in the KODT "Bundle Of Trouble" compilations.

But there's a difference. These are the same stories from the other side of the looking glass. These are not the tales of Bob, Dave, and Sara, but of Knuckles, El Ravager, and Zayre.

But, knowing the 'punchlines' ahead of time, are they still funny? Oh yes. The battle with the gazebo takes on new meaning when you see the foul beast lurking on the hill, as well as evidence of its deadly petrifying gaze scattered around the so-called 'peaceful garden'. Knuckles in the midst of gambling, warning Zayre not to touch his dice. El Ravagers' first meeting with Chelsie, the Magic Cow. Farmer Brian's +5 hoe.

Rounding out each tale is a 'KODT Timeline', showing where the story took place in the original series.

Just to earn my anal-retentive fanboy geek credits, I have to make one nitpick:On the cover, Knuckles is shown with his famous wooden leg. But he didn't get that until around issue 12 or so, and, correctly, has both of his original legs in the stories in the comic.

The only other complaint, perhaps more serious, is that I'm not sure how funny these stories would be to anyone who hasn't read the originals. The gazebo story stands alone pretty well, as the tale of some paranoid adventurers turning everything around them into a deathtrap. But without comparing the 'tabletop' action to the 'game' action, the introduction of Zayre to the others would seem a bit flat, (At least until the 'parley' section of the tale is reached) and a reader unfamiliar with the saga of Chelsie would probably consider the Knights rather clever for identifying the enchanted cow in the first place!

Lastly, the illustration by Aaron Williams of 'Nodwick' fame is quite good, though the Hackmaster+12 isn't nearly as k3wl as it should be. Mr. Williams should flip through some Warhammer or Senzar books to learn what a Hackmaster sword should look like. More spiky bitz, please!