Comic Book Review: Dork Tower Volume X: The Tao of Igor by John Kovalic
Igor Olman has been studying the Tao, a system of philosophy which includes living in harmony with “the Way”, self-cultivation and accordance with the natural order. He’s very enthusiastic about it, as he is about most things, “HUZZAH!”, and has been giving advice to his friends based on his understanding of the concepts. It’s debatable if his understanding is complete, but “the tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.”
He certainly has not freed himself of desire, as Warhamster Version 8.5 has just come out and he must have it! Problem: he is already over $1500 in debt to the game store owner, Bill Blyden. Solution: Bill offers writing off that debt if Igor takes over head of convention organization for MudCon 15, coming up soon. New problem: Now that Igor has enthusiastically agreed to this deal, he actually has to organize the convention. Uh-oh.
Dork Tower started in 1997 as a print comic strip in various gaming magazines before becoming an online webcomic and thence a print comic book series. It’s that last thing that primarily concerns us here as this volume collects issues 30-37 of the comic book. The original run ended in 2005 with #36, one issue short of the conclusion of the Mud-Con plotline, as Mr. Kovalic’s work commitments had gotten overwhelming and something had to go. Many years later his daughter read the comic books and wanted to know how the story ended, so he finally wrote and drew the last issue.
In addition to Igor’s problems, we follow: Matt McLimore, a graphic designer and the gaming group’s usual Gamemaster, who’s trying to start his own comic book to debut at MudCon; Ken Mills, a computer programmer and stickler for accuracy, who tries to design an adventure for people to play at the convention and proposes to his girlfriend Sujata (a miniature games enthusiast), and Carson C. Muskrat, a talking muskrat who mostly comments wryly on his friends’ antics during this storyline.
Other major characters during this plotline are Sujata, who’s feeling pressure from her parents to marry someone more “suitable” than Ken; Kayleigh, Matt’s ex-girlfriend and Sujata’s roommate who is extremely uncomfortable being identified with gamers as she’s a respectable newspaper reporter; and Wil Wheaton (yes, that Wil Wheaton) who seems more invested in making MudCon succeed than anyone else.
MudCon, the “pride” of Mud Bay, Wisconsin, is having a lot of difficulties. The organizing committee is disorganized, the venue is hazardous, and the finances don’t bear looking at. The special guests are cancelling left and right, and pre-registration is flatlining. Igor is trying his best, but things are looking pretty hopeless.
Matt and Ken have also hit walls that make things seem dark–so clearly this is the time to interrupt the storyline for a history of board games! And a Christmas special! Then one last issue of things going wrong…hiatus!
#37 is the actual convention, which seems to be a disaster at first…until good things start kicking in, and a seeming miracle occurs. Maybe this won’t be the last MudCon after all!
The art is very cartoony, which serves the comedy well, but Mr. Kovalic shows off his skills at various points–there’s a reason this concept has kept going while other gamer comics have died. The characters are flawed, but mostly likable and it’s easy to root for the protagonists to finally succeed.
There is a notable hate sink character in the final issue. The representative of Gatekeeper Comics, an artist/writer who represents the sort of industry professional who hates just about everyone, but especially “fake” fans who don’t conform to his exact specification of who fans should be and what they should like. You know, the sort of person who comes across as super sexist but swears up and down it has nothing to do with sexism (or racism for that matter), but only integrity. Naturally, he makes no friends…or sales.
Most of the references are “bland name products” like Warhamster 40K or the International Waffle House of Renown, but Star Trek and Star Wars references are undisguised, the latter making a point about how female characters are treated by certain fans. Plus a couple of real-life person cameos!
There’s a bit of bonus material, so this volume may be a good buy even for fans that have the original comics run.
Strongly recommended to gamers and other fans.
