Given the tradition of new beginnings on the start of the New Year, it may come as no surprise for comics to choose January 1st to emerge from the dread mists of hiatus. Thus it probably should come as no surprise that Rich Burlew’s epic stick-figure fantasy comic Order of the Stick has chosen to emerge from a three-month-hiatus on this date, with a musical recap interlude that could only have been more amusing if Buffy and crew had sung it while fighting demons. What makes it even more fun is the reaction of Elan’s companions to his suggestion (with Belkar begging their priest to deafen him once more, while Roy groused at how recaps don’t advance the story).

As recaps go, it was fairly quick and summed things up for the current storyline quite nicely; amusingly enough, it even proved Roy wrong as Elan proves he isn’t a complete idiot as well as he used the recap to reveal he sussed out the fact they’re fighting Elan’s father (a realization Roy was about to reveal himself prior to Elan’s insistence on recapping the story). Best of all, it even gave Burlew a chance to explain in-comic the reason for the hiatus (as he’d cut his thumb against glass and couldn’t bend it nor draw; and yes, there’s enough artistry in the stick figures that he couldn’t just “work around it”). In any event, it’s good to see OotS’s return; of all the comics to go on hiatus, this is one of the few I missed the most.