Cheshire Grin is an interesting comic, a combination of fantasy and reality merged together seamlessly. On the one hand we have the main characters, an eclectic collection of gaming geeks (and one babe!) (hey, I’m a gaming geek, I think I have every right to refer to us as gaming geeks.) who use the game as a reason to gather together. Really, when you get down to it, isn’t that what gaming is about? You get together with your friends and have fun.

It doesn’t matter if it’s D&D or watching videos or a poker game… we are friends because of our connection through the game. (And let’s be honest… gamers are more imaginative (on average) than most poker players or those letting their brains rot while watching the latest movies from Hollywood.) On the other hand, we have descents into different fantasy worlds, depending on what is going on. We’ve had fantasy roleplaying, LARPing, and now this latest mixture of Lovecraft, Discworld, and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (I think). Tonight’s comic is especially twisty, with a superb-looking Death appearing on-scene… and being sidetracked from collecting the ape to going after the bad guys instead.

(Reminds me of the time when in the game I convinced an Ettin that evil people were more nutritious than good people… I was 12 at the time and new to the game. Hey, it worked! *grin*) And of course you have to wonder just who is playing the monkey. I mean… I was thinking he was an NPC up to this point, but that little twist was just so delightfully evil that it has to be something a player came up with. And when we’re not in the game, we’ve people looking for jobs, dating troubles, and even one of the gamers having problems with an abusive father… and how his older friends try to deal with the situation. These subplots can be even more interesting than the fantasy roleplaying we see through the eyes of imagination. Any roleplayer will enjoy Cheshire Grin, and I certainly recommend it.