Knights of the Dinner Table: Bundle of Trouble vol. 44

(A compilation of KODT issues #151-154) This volume of Bundles of Trouble starts off with the return of a character who had been absent from the pages of the comic for almost, nine years! The subsequent issues deal with how the Muncieverse deals with that character s return from death and the events he sets in motion. I thought running the original editorial (in part) would be appropriate here. If you don t like spoilers you might want to read the strips in this issue first and then come back (although the cover and title of this issue are pretty much a spoiler in themselves). The big question on many readers minds the last two months has been Is Gary Jackson alive? Issue #149 cruelly ended with a bit of a cliff hanger as a familiar looking shadow of somebody from the past greeted Jo Jo Zeke. Since then we ve been flooded with emails and posts on our forums as to what the shadow really meant and exactly who it was. There have been some interesting theories. One of the most popular is that the shadow belonged to Timmy Jackson (all grown up). Others still proposed it was a dream sequence and Jo Jo was in a drunken stupor. Okay so now it can be finally told Gary IS alive. I won t give away all the hows and whys here most of that will be revealed in the coming issues as the tale unfolds. I will say this Gary s return has been planned for 8 years and wasn t something just recently contrived. In fact, if you go back to the strip with Gary s funeral in issue #55 (We ve Become Orphans), the first clues are right there. The fact is we ve been laying down clues in the strips for the last 8 years. Those paying close attention may have noted the newspaper Sheila was reading in Issue 137 for example . Or the intern, Jack Grayson , who has been listed in the Table of Contents of KODT for the better part of 5 years (Waco once commented about Jack, He s good. He s Gary Good.) That last panel in issue 149 (BOT Volume 43) had been a long time coming. And when the Hard Eight story arc escalated a year or so ago when things kicked into gear, we feared we had tipped our hand and readers would figure it out. And of course last March when the strip appeared with Jo Jo brooding over an unopened bottle of Scotch on the anniversary of Gary s death it was a bit of sad irony (and quite by coincidence) that Gary Gygax happened to pass away a few days after that same issue went to press. Our fear was that readers would wrongly assume the strip (and the story arc around it) was somehow trying to bank on the news. Speaking of Gary Gygax, when he learned we had killed off Gary Jackson back in 2001, he gave me a hard time about it. He liked the character, he explained. Steve Jackson thinks he s Gary. But everyone knows he s me. he joked in an email. The truth is (as I ve written many times), Gee-Jay was initially based on MANY people I ve known over the years both in the gaming industry and out (including a former boss I once had who referred to himself as Top Cat). Since that time he s managed to grow and become a unique personality in his own right, I think. At any rate, it s good to have him back. Let the games begin. And apparently, (based on emails), a lot of you agree. One other thing I d like to mention about that original issue just as we were going to press, news arrived that Dave Arneson (co-creator of D&D) passed away. We knew we couldn t let the moment pass without some sort of nod to the man who had helped bring so much magic and friendship into our lives. A likeness of Dave was added (that s him raising a beer to Gary as he jumps the shark ) by the Fraim Brothers. Jolly R. Blackburn