“Yesterday’s” Comic> Nodwick #1

This is why nobody wants to help their friends move.

Nodwick #1

Do Gooder Press (January, 1999) I should note that the cover says Do Gooder Press but the indicta says “Henchmen Publishing. The same for the two PS238 comics I reviewed.

WRITER/ARTIST: Aaron Williams

FOREWORD: John Kovalic

“Lo, I Am God, And So Am I”

Nodwick and his friends–the wizard Artax, the Yeager the drunken knight, and the mage Piffany–are in need of work since their jobs usually end with something exploding. They’re hired to find a missing temple of a deity with an “order” and “chaos” side. When the followers of the “chaos” side were sent to gather the requirements to expel the “chaos” side they found the temple missing. Unfortunately their clues require Yeager to magically bounce between drunk and sober…mostly unfortunately for the others since they have to deal with him. To find it they have to pass a series of tests, which turned out to be the “chaos” side’s followers messing with the “order” side’s followers. Piffany tries to get the two sides to work together…which lasts about a day. I wish this was a better introduction to the characters, but it isn’t terrible. Not being an RPG player I couldn’t tell you what Nodwick’s class even if and I’m guessing on the other three. (Even I know Yeager ain’t making “paladin”.) The story itself is humorous and a good intro to their personalities at least. Luckily there’s a character bio section at the back of the comic to make up for it and I wish I knew that before writing this section of the review. Ah, well. At least the homework is in the comic.

“What’re You Trying To Pull”

While going for supplies, Yeager pulls a sword from a stone. Instead of being crowned king it threatens to start a war with evil gods and the good gods noping out because the sword was pulled out too early. What follows is Yeager trying to put the sword in and pull it out, but the prophecies keep coming up with a new curse for each in and out until he has enough and breaks the darn thing. This is one big running gag that thankfully knows when to end it before the comedy is lost with the village.

overall

Between the main stories and other bits (I don’t know how much of it are reprinted from Dragon magazine), it’s an entertaining comic. It’s not my usual genre since I’m not a fantasy RPG player or reader but this is a comic I could get interested in.