UPDATE! While you can always read the short story below, I have decided to start making my comics freely available to all for easier digital reading. Please visit https://www.vonallan.com/p/pirate-von.html for more information and download links!
This was a fun little story to do. The main idea behind it was a simple one: there have been a number of different "
retro-clone" versions of the old
B/X ("Basic/Expert") style of dungeon crawling since the publication of the
Open Games License. I thought it would be interesting to take some of those differences and contrast them in a story. Specifically, I wanted to contrast the
magic-user class presented in
LABYRINTH LORD with the one presented in Tom Moldvay's
BASIC DUNGEONS & DRAGONS and David Cook and Stephen R. Marsh's
EXPERT DUNGEONS & DRAGONS.
It was originally supposed to run as a black and white story in the second issue of
UNDERGROUND COMICS, but sadly that project seems to have fallen apart. However! It
has seen print as a back-up feature in the 3rd issue of my own ongoing series
WOLF'S HEAD.
I also subtly linked the story to the world of
Bill and Butch, too!
This story — as well as a boatload of others — were collected into a beautiful hardcover edition titled
LOVE, LAUGHTER, AND LOSS: A COMICS COLLECTION. More information about that edition can be found
right here.
In addition, there is also a digital comic book titled
WIZARDS FOR HIRE — CHEAP! on Kindle that can be read anywhere in the world. And it contains this story! This is available on Amazon at
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089QXBYY9.
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