I’ve revisited my old comic collection and was shocked to stumble across the infamous “A Gamer’s Rant at The Movies.” It made me wonder how things could have been different, and I wanted to share some insights from this amazing magazine.
I got my first issue of Knights of the Dinner Table years ago—it was the “Knights of the Dinner Table: Bundle of Trouble Vol. 1,” which contained the comic portions of issues 1 through 3. I would read that over and over again, but it wasn’t until a few years later that I’d discover the comic again, purely by random chance.
The comic portion of the magazine mostly follows a group of friends playing tabletop RPGs, going to conventions, or just generally having fun together. Their world is fleshed out by a cast of odd but iconic characters, ranging from “Weird Pete” Ashton, the owner of the game shop, and his oddly named pet chimpanzee, Squirrely.
Where was I? Oh, right, I was talking about the uniqueness of Knights of the Dinner Table. The other half of the comic was an amazing magazine where you’d find columns like “Tales from the Table,” where fans could write in and share their stories of playing tabletop RPGs with friends or foes, alongside the weird stories it would bring. You also had sections like “Gamemaster’s Workshop,” where authors offered tips and advice for aspiring Game Masters or Dungeon Masters.
One very interesting thing I discovered while writing this was that before James Davenport took over as the writer for “Gaming at the Movies,” the column was called “A Gamer’s Rant on The Movies.” As best as I could tell, it ran from issues 99 to 141. But you might be asking, who wrote this column? Was it Adam Sessler? James Stephanie Sterling? Kevin Pereira? Kevin Rose? Or Yahtzee Croshaw?
No, it was, of all people, the tragic burnout that was Noah “SpoonyOne” Antwiler, I’d rather not go down that horrid rabbit hole, but I thought it was so interesting that after all this time, this could have been where he got his start.
Where was I? Oh, right, talking about the Knights of the Dinner Table magazine and comic… sometimes I get sidetracked by tangents.
What prompted me to revisit my old copies of the magazine? It was thanks to rewatching CHUCK for another blog post and spotting a copy of Knights of the Dinner Table in the background of one of the shots. For those wondering, it’s Issue 25 from 1998, “Secrets of the Hackfiles,” just in case anyone was curious.
Yet, I find myself wondering about the magazine, which has been going strong for 35 years, with the latest issue’s street date being June 4th, 2025. It leaves me pondering if it can continue. While I’m sure Jolly Blackburn could keep the magazine running for years, I’m left wondering what the plan is to keep it going for another 30 or 50 years?
First, I would do a total overhaul of the magazine’s website; it was a bit of a nightmare to navigate. Other than that, I would really hope that someone would be able to update the article index, as it ends at Issue 286, but we are all the way up to issue 318. The only other thing I would love to see is the index moved to a searchable webpage rather than having to download a Word file.
I’ll be honest, readers: if it wasn’t for discovering Knights of the Dinner Table, I might not have gotten into HackMaster, Pathfinder, Cyberpunk Red, or even given Dungeons & Dragons a shot. It was also thanks to that comic that I fell in love with fantasy novels and the deeply moving works of Sir Terry Pratchett.
So, truly, we as a community should find a way to ensure that Knights of the Dinner Table lives on for many years to come. This way, more generations can discover this amazing magazine and perhaps even be inspired to create their own.
Until Next Time
FlySafe
The Professor