posted on March 6th, 2008 in Achewood, Content, Music, News, Penny Arcade, Rooster Teeth, Undependence, Undies, Web Comics 

Undies Remember Gary Gygax (1938-2008)

The death of Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax earlier this week wasn’t just a loss for gamers and fantasy fans, but for creative types and undependents all over the world. Some of the web’s best and brightest undependents have been remembering the role-playing game titan as only they can.

• Chris Onstad at Achewood features an irreverent, but ultimately affectionate, strip explaining the basics of D&D to those who are unfamiliar with it.

• Giant in the Playground imagines Gygax’s arrival in heaven.

• Full Frontal Nerdity thanks Gygax “for saving us all a place at the gaming table.”

• Dork Tower remembers Gygax with an incredibly sweet, earnest cartoon.

• The undie band Uncle Monsterface (which defies description, but in a wonderful, wonderful way) offers a free download of their new song “(thank you) Gary Gygax.” (Via Wired.)

• At the Rooster Teeth blog, Burnie Burns writes: “He was born with a space alien’s last name; he was destined for nerdom at birth. D&D didn’t exist so he had no choice but to invent it.”

• Penny Arcade features an unbelievably touching, and perfectly executed, tribute to Gygax.

It’s easy to understand the outpouring of emotion from the undependents — Gygax was an undie pioneer, creating not just an original work of art, but an original form of art as well. He created D&D out of whole cloth, and he did it himself, releasing the very first editions of the game himself, without help from major distributors. He was almost a godfather to generations of creative types, and the undependent scene wouldn’t be the same without him. Rest in peace, Gary.

  by Joel on Mar. 9th, 2008

Hey Mike, check this out via wilw@twitter:
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/03/09/opinion/09opart2.ready.html