Gamemasters: The Comic Book History of Roleplaying Games
by
Fred Van Lente (writer), Tom Fowler (artist), Bill Crabtree (colour)
Rating: 5 of 5 Ω‘s
From the ancient lives of my ancestors here in the Indian sub-continent to the deserts of West Asia to Napoleonic France and all the way through to the modern era. This is the kind of length and breadth of world history that is explored in this joyous effort at studying a history of one of the most timeless of human activities – gaming.
What is the connection between Chess and Dungeons and Dragons? Why did people hate dice games What was the Mechanical Turk? What did Buck Rogers have to do with Gary Gygax? There are these and many more questions you never even knew you had that will be answered within these pages.
Today, things like RPG’s have slowly started to find a smidge more acceptance versus the heavily “geek/nerd” image associated with them for many decades. But it is fascinating to see the origins of them all – from the progenitors of what evolved into chess and then the evolution of military war-games for actually military leaders to hone their skills, it is a journey worth the taking because rendered lovingly herein and with both gentle touches of humour and whimsy, we get to see an aspect of human culture as it evolved. Full marks to the art trio as well who not only cross centuries of human history in this book, but they also render all of it with a consistent and colourful energy that is just cartoonish enough to elicit some chuckles, but never become an outright “funny book”.
We all know that history is a story of how things went from how they were to how they are and we are many of us aware of (if not always agreeing on) the concept of evolution – not just in genetics, but of many things. This book and the narrative with, does a stellar job of showcasing a very niche socio-cultural aspect of human society that has gone through changes that I could not have really fathomed. I mean, I knew some things about the geographic evolution of chess, but this provided so much more crisply presented information to add depth to that knowledge and then showed me the connections it had to other things that evolved over time from those humble roots.
As a fan of table top gaming, comics, RPGs and history, I have to say that I was extremely pleased by my experience perusing these pages and if you share these interests, this is a remarkably thorough and well researched book that keeps itself surprisingly light and easy as a read.
One Happy Monk 
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