John Kovalic is a very witty man and a very good comic artist, with a very distinctive style. His original claim to fame is a comic called "Dork Tower". It updates online when he gets around to it, based on how busy he is with paying work. He also brings out volumes of it, which are not collections of the online stuff. That, too, is "when it happens".

He's a terrible punster. Just awful. Monumental. And I want one of these.

He's buddies with Wil Wheaton, which is kind of cool. They go way back. (Probably met at a gaming convention.)

What he is probably most famous for now is doing the art for various games, in particular the Munchkin series from Steve Jackson. Jackson and Kovalic have a very long and successful business relationship going back at least 15 years, and at this point Kovalic has done more than 5000 Munchkin cards for Jackson, plus working on other things (e.g. Chez Geek). He's also worked for other publishers, about which more later.

One of the more recent versions of Munchkin is "Munchkin Zombie" and there was one card in it that Kovalic simply could not bring himself to do. He writes about it here.

What I find interesting about this is that he has done "kids in danger" before, but that was a long time ago. In particular he did the art for a game called "Kobolds ate my baby". It's a very silly game. (No, I haven't played it; I don't do that anymore.) But the original cover art is a kobold chasing a woman carrying a baby in her arms. And the baby is reaching out to the kobold.

That was long before his daughter was born, and I wonder how he feels when he thinks back to it? (Probably something like "Well that was then and this is now.")

All I can say is that I'm very happy for John and Judith that their daughter (now 7) is happy and healthy and growing up nicely.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in linky at 11:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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