Order of the Stick is one of those comics that need to be seen to be believed. It is an artistic stick figure webcomic. That’s right, it’s stick figures. Artistic stick figures, at that. And yet it somehow seems… right for the comic, which is an amusing blend of a role-playing game and parody of the D&D d20 system.

Rather than try to explain how you can have artistic stick figures, I’m going to direct you to the site to see for yourself (in case the thumbnail strip doesn’t give a good enough idea). However, OotS does prove one thing: Good storytelling can overcome mediocre art. I mean, we’re talking about stick figures here… this isn’t what we normally think of as “art” for comics (though we’ve had comics out there that are nothing but disembodied faces, so what do I know?).

Story is part of what OotS is about. We’ve already seen Roy’s back story, with a wizarding father who was slain by a lich (Xykon). We’ve met Elan’s evil brother, found out about Haley’s dad being imprisoned… and seen a relationship start between Durkon (a dwarvish priest of Thor) and a priestess of Loki (it kinda fell apart because she’s married and her husband isn’t dead yet) (yes, I know Loki and Thor are kind of enemies in many D&D campaigns, blame Durkon for not taking skill points in Religion).

However, humor is another huge part of OotS’s charm. The characters make fun of the d20 rules and their inconsistencies. They point out inconsistencies, such as a character spending years to learn to be a 1st level wizard, but being easily able to gain a wizarding level if they are a different class… or a halfling having to take an extra round leaping in the air to reach his foe. It’s twisted, amusing, and fun.

Meanwhile… I suspect I’m not alone in realizing they’ve left V’s robes behind. I mean, what’s our little elf going to wear when Durkon casts a Dispel Magic on V… (I suppose the group at least will know what gender V is now… unless they do one of those jokes about elves looking girly even when they’re guys… which when you think of it, is more than likely for this bunch.)

So either start at the beginning of the comic or at the start of the current storyline.