My father introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons.

His first character was a wizard named Draziw. His second was a wizard named Silverleaf. I remember the drawing he made of Draziw in the little portrait box on the character sheet. When he revealed to us that Draziw was Wizard spelled backwards we all flipped out. We couldn’t believe how clever that was.

Dad brought home the blue box and the red box. He never made it to Advanced D&D but all my friends did. Dad certainly provided a safe haven for playing. D&D lead to Villains and Vigilantes, Gama World, Star Frontiers and Top Secret.

My dad called me today to ask if I knew that Gary Gygax died. “You haven’t posted a comic about it yet.” he mentioned. I knew later in life that Gygax co-created D&D. When I was playing, I was more interested in meeting Bill Willingham and Jeff Dee. These were the artists that inspired me as a kid to draw fantasy art and annoy every single DM that tried to run me through an adventure. I never paid attention to what they were saying. I was too busy trying to draw everyone’s characters. I followed Willingham and Dee over to V&V and never really returned to Dungeons and Dragons.

I heard from a couple people today that Gygax was kind of an ego-maniac. That he stole the thunder of the other creators. I asked a friend in the know if this was true. “Maybe a little” he said. “But remember that mortals never live up to the legends surrounding them.”

Gary Gygax and all the authors, artists and game designers after him have created countless legends that none of them are capable of living up to.

And for that we, the nerds of the earth, thank them.