The Order of the Stick

Everything you can find in a Dungeons&Dragons sourcebook … you’ll recognize it within this comic by Rich Burlew.

First – you don’t need to be a hardcore D&D player to enjoy this comic. You don’t even need to play pen & paper role-playing game to enjoy this comic … But you will enjoy it all the more if you do!

This is because the Order or the Stick has tons (read: gazillions) of clever innuendos concerning the pen&paper D&D genre. And while the comic is a clever and very enjoyable read even if you don’t understand the first thing about RPGs, a lot of humor is lost …

The Order of the Stick manages to dance a fine line as the characters mostly talk to each other aware of rules and regulations you can find in D&D. They don’t find a magical ring that makes you jump really, really high – nope, they find a ring of jumping +20. Even their standard battle tactics are worded via the maneuvers that are found in the D&D sourcebook, be it Haley’s “Sneak attack, bitch!” or Roy’s great cleavage … (Cleave is a powerful sword stroke that lets you attack an additional enemy if you just killed one. Great Cleave lets you repeat this indefinitely as long as another enemy is within reach and you kill your enemies with each stroke.) See, if you didn’t get the “great cleavage” bit, you’ll sometimes look at the comics page, tilt your head and wonder just exactly why this should be funny.
In any case, the characters in the book don’t speak like an adventuring party would, they speak like players who play an adventuring party would. And that makes this comic charmingly hilarious.

As I first started reading Order of the Stick, I had already played lots of pen & paper RPGs, but, ironically, never D&D. I recently started playing D&D with some friends, and then reread the Order of the Stick comics and suddenly understood several jokes I just didn’t get before.

But lo! before you say “I don’t do RPGs, this is wasted on me!” give the Order a shot. Even without the additional humor (that sometimes IS self-explanatory) it has one of the greatest and vastest storylines you’ll ever stumble upon when reading web comics!

Once you start to read the comic you can’t help but notice that the name of this comic is there for a reason: Because the comic is drawn with stick figures. The fun part is, I still think that this is GOOD art. Every character has very distinct features, and there have been several good art upgrades over the years. I remember having an actual discussion with a friend who told me that although Haley is a stick figure, she actually has sex appeal.

Also, the comic and its plot are incredibly well planned. The author never seems to forget any details he worked into the comic, even if it is an item that was found some 200 strips ago. But the major plot that goes through this comic is incredible well-written and of an epic nature that it almost puts those two hobbits and their ring to shame. (well, almost)

The villains in this comic are likewise entertaining as gruesome and cruel, and even they have their distinctive backgrounds.

You can either enjoy the Order of the Stick online or you can buy the books (I recommend that, as they include bonus material – wooo!). Also, there are two books so far that show what happened BEFORE the main plot began – one for the heroes and one for the villains.

All in all a very, very recommendable read, and if you’re a D&D fan all the more so!

• Updates: Bi-weekly
• Safe for work: Yes

• Art: 7.5/10
• Plot:10/10
• Originality: 9/10
• Overall: 9.5/10

• Fun: 8/10 normally, 9/10 if you play pen&paper RPGs and 10/10 if you play D&D!

(More to the ratings here)

Questionable Content

Cute baristas, AnthroPCs, Indie rock, lots of booze and Pizza Girl!

So here goes the review for a webcomic I read on a daily basis (usually and fittingly alongside my morning cup of coffee): Questionable content (henceforth mentioned as QC) by J. Jacques.

I made the mistake, before the review, to check up on old QC comics – and thus had to read them all over again … You can’t help but to get drawn into the whole QC world once you start reading it.

The one thing you can’t help but notice if you reread the comic from the get-go is how much the art has improved over the years. The first comic (posted 2003) has much cruder graphics – J. Jacques is my hope at the end of the tunnel because he shows that practice can indeed improve your performance. The art in QC now is top notch, and if you look closely you will see single strips where an art improvement has been added (look for the eyes, for instance).

Also, in the very first strip we notice that the QC world differs from ours because we meet Pintsize, who is the Anthro-PC of Marten (the main character in the comic). Basically Anthro-PCs are talking, walking and (un)usually cute computers with personalities. Especially Pintsize is (although endearing) sometimes a real pain in the ass and (very often) a source of hilarity. Later on he is joined by other AnthroPCs like Winslow (who is more an iPod kinda AnthroPC) or Momo-tan (kawaii manga AnthroPC).

The comics themselves are scripted very nicely, and often incredible funny. There is a steady cast of characters (mostly female) that might seem overwhelming when you jump in the middle of the series, but is actually built up over the strips so if you read them chronologically you’ll see that they’re all properly introduced into the series, although almost none of them are normal – and those who seem normal might just have a dominatrix mother, weed-smoking parents or grew up in space. These whacky backgrounds help form the comic to what it is: Thoughtful, funny, witty and Indie.

QC has an active storyline that progresses a lot, and one that puts most television soaps to shame. Many of these storylines feature a slow build up (especially the Faye-Marten relationship)until they are resolved, if they are resolved at all. People get or lose jobs, solve relations or even take guesses at who Pizza Girl might actually be (my bet is on Penny’s twin sister).

Most of the QC action takes place either at the “Coffee of doom” shop (owned by one of the main characters, and several others work there) or in Marten and Faye’s apartment.

The comic itself is safe for work (I’d say no nudity, but let’s face it one must actually say “no nipples” to stay correct), but features some rather rude or sexual implicit language rather often, so it’s probably PG12+. The only problem with the “Safe for work” factor is if you are good at suppressing laughter so your co-workers won’t eye you suspiciously.

• Updates: Daily (mo-fr)
• Safe for work: Yes

• Art: 9/10
• Plot: 9.5/10
• Originality: 9/10
• Overall: 9.5/10

• Fun: 9/10


Whoops, that’s a whole lotta 9’s. Meh – can’t think of anything that’d score below that in QC.

(More to the ratings here)