Dork Tower III Heart of Dorkness

John Kovalic, Heart of Dorkness (Dork Storm Press, 2002) I've heard a lot of great things about Dork Tower over the years, but as my Dragon subscription expired many, many years ago, I'd never gotten a chance to see it. My library did have one copy (across the whole system!) of one book, so once I knew that, I grabbed it. It's quite funny stuff, as long as Kovalic sticks to skewering, parodying, and otherwise mangling modern geek culture, and the overall storyline is a good bit of fun, but when the book gets serious, it bogs way, way down. Thankfully, that only happens a bit, and hopefully it's absent from the other volumes, which I must now hunt down via Interlibrary Loan (for the higher-ups at my library have no grasp of the term "continuity"). ****

John Kovalic?s ?Dork Tower? series, since I discovered it a few years ago, has been one of the best treats I?ve enjoyed as a comic book reader. It?s the story of Matt, Igor, Ken and Carson -- four average gaming geeks (average except that Carson happens to be a muskrat) who walk a balance between existing in the real world and escaping to a game world.This volume, third in the series, offers some of the best plot advancement yet. For some time now Kovalic has danced around the fact that Matt and Gilly the Perky Goth would be kindred spirits if they ever actually met. In this book, he finally gives us that meeting -- with a monkeywrench thrown in. Matt meets Gilly, all right... right after he gets back together with his game-hating, geek-intolerant ex-girlfriend.?Dork Tower? is one of the few series that really makes you feel for the characters without ever resorting to sappy moments or losing the fact that it?s a comedy first. We want Matt and Gilly to get together, but the obstacles in their way are so funny we don?t want them to stop. Every page of this book is packed with laughs. I can?t imagine anyone not loving this book. I've said it before and I'll say it again -- if Charles Schulz had played "Dungeons and Dragons," the result would have been "Dork Tower."

The third collection of the Dork Tower comic books.Once again, our characters live their lives and poke fun at just about everything in life.The main plot line concerns Ken, who against all the advice of his friends, is getting back with his old girlfriend (the Ex from Hades). But no sooner does he meet with his ex than he finally meets the cute and perky Gilly (the one we have wanted him to hook up with since the start). Triangle city. Poor Ken is stuck in the middle of gaming, relationships, gaming, humor, gaming, life and did I mention gaming.A very fun series for anyone who has ever know a compulsive personality (gamer, beanie baby collector, etc.).