Drunken Pumpkin

Art by Alex Ross.

pyro

The true weird tale has something more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains according to rule. A certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present, and there must be a hint, expressed with a seriousness and portentousness becoming its subject, of that most terrible conception of the human brain — a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space.

“Supernatural Horror in Literature”

I bought the complete D&D Animated series box set a few weeks ago. Watching it I went through most of the same stages I go through when watching any cartoon from my youth. Mainly, wondering what the hell was wrong with me.

However, after the first couple of episodes D&D settled into a fairly nice groove and the writing started to feel a little more intelligent. That’s when I started to notice something a little creepy: Dungeon Master was a jerk. My wife and I predicted that he was just using the kids to clean up his world before he really helped them to get home. I won’t tell you if we were right or not. And it’s all a matter of conjecture anyway.

And speaking of conjecture, I think I have an interesting way of looking at the cartoon. Now, the writers all said that the cartoon was only loosely based on Dungeons & Dragons, but I think it hits a lot closer to home than one might think.

Maybe I think that way because I’ve been reading Order of the Stick. And while OotS is clearly what a role-playing game would look like from the inside (including the excitement of rules expansions and their effects on characters in play) the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon claims to not be that at all. But I disagree.

If you’ve ever played D&D you realize the characters match the personality types of specific kinds of people: the kid is the barbarian, the arrogant fellow is the cavalier, and the would-be leader is a ranger (very Lord of the Rings). And of course there is the episode where someone complains a little too much and is assigned the duties of Dungeon Master.

I could go on and on about this, but I know that I’m technically wrong about it. Both of the series main writers and producers said in no uncertain terms that the realm was a background and that’s it. One of the writers, Michael Reaves, even said he has never played the game in his life.

But I think the idea still has a little merit. If nothing else, it gives me a good idea for what to do if I’m ever asked to DM a game again.

Tune in tomorrow for more fun and excitement. And possibly some last minute tentacles.

Come my little one, and give me your hand.

Spoken to his daughter, Ottilie
Died March 22, 1832

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.

“Supernatural Horror in Literature”

I promised animation for today. I was wrong. I really have no idea how those guys that do this for a living stand it. I can’t imagine the good old days of thousands of hand painted cells. I’m getting frustrated enough with the computer doing most of the grunt work.

Maybe that’s my problem, I’ve put too much onto this infernal machine. It has taken away my freedom. And, now, it has taken away your cartoons. Damn the man I say we all rebel and throw our computers out the window and go back to filling out forms by hand!

No, wait. That’s a bad idea. No computers = No Drunken Pumpkin. And that is a sad equation.

On the bright side I do have a .pdf of the original minicomic that the soon to come animation is based on. If you have a duplex printer set it to flip on the long edge. If you don’t print it so that “See Dick” is on the back of the cover image.
Then fold the short sides together, then the long sides together so that the cover is on the cover, staple, and then trim off the top fold. Voila, minicomic. I hope you enjoy.

Tune in tomorrow for something. I don’t know what, but I’m sure it will be good.