Dungeons & Dragons started a revolution when the first edition was released in 1974, inventing a new world that an untold number of fans have participated in for five decades since. Gary Gygax has never been shy about the fantasy influences behind the franchise’s original creation, but fewer know the comic books that inspired much of D&D’s world.
1979’s D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide contains the now-legendary Appendix N, a list of works that inspired co-creator Gary Gygax in the creation of Dungeons & Dragons. Authors like J.R.R. Tolkein, Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft are cited as direct sources of inspiration, but it is Gygax’s mention of EC Comics in the Appendix’s introduction that is notable in tracing the franchise’s roots in comics history.
EC Comics was founded by publisher Max Gaines in 1944 to focus on education-themed children’s stories. Following Gaines’ death in 1947, his son William Gaines took over the company, and revamped the entire line to focus more on horror, science fiction and fantasy. Thanks to writer-editors like Al Feldstein and Harvey Kurtzman, and artists like Graham Engels, Jack Davis and Wally Wood, EC Comics quickly became a bleeding-edge publisher that changed the whole industry.
The increasingly violent and mature themes covered in their books would eventually lead to the widespread vilification of comics in the 1950s, leading to official government hearings, and the formation of the self-governing Comics Code Authority. While EC Comics struggled to survive in the aftermath, the revolutionary line of comics survived thanks to the quality of the original work.
Out of the multiple horror and thriller titles, three stand out in particular: Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror and Haunt of Fear. All three featured horror hosts to introduce the grim tales therein, which often featured macabre, O. Henry-esque twist endings. It’s the dark and ghoulish artwork that seemed to have impacted a young Gary Gygax the most, as the settings of murky swamps and cold dungeons filled with all manner of monsters should be familiar to any longtime D&D fan.
In addition to the horror comics, EC also published science fiction and fantasy in sister publications Weird Science and Weird Fantasy. While not as popular as the other titles, the two sci-fi/fantasy books left a legacy all their own, bringing the same macabre sensibility to those genres. Notably, famed fantasy artist Frank Frazetta contributed several stories to both titles in the years before he became a painter and illustrator.
Frazetta’s impact on science fiction and fantasy is well-established, and there’s no question that his artwork influenced D&D (as much as every every other fantasy property in the late twentieth century).
The majority of Appendix N is comprised of science fiction and fantasy authors, and it is here where another connection to comics can be made. Many of the authors that Gygax lists also wrote comics in addition to prose, with Gardner Fox being chief amongst them all. While Gygax lists his fantasy novels such as the Kothar and Kyrik series, Fox was perhaps best remembered in history for his comic book work.
Working for DC Comics during the Golden Age, Fox co-created heroes like The Flash, Hawkman, and Sandman, and was the first writer to team them all together in the Justice Society of America. While publishing stories for various pulp magazines in the thirties and forties, Fox would eventually branch out into novels in the subsequent decades, but he never stopped writing for the comics. Fox would again play a major role in the Silver Age at DC Comics, putting a sci-fi twist on old heroes, and refashioning the Justice Society into the Justice League.
Fox was also instrumental in establishing the multiverse with his landmark “Flash of Two Worlds” story from The Flash #123. Fox casts a large shadow over modern-day popular culture, and his influence on D&D can be felt in that franchise’s own multiverse.
Pulp author Manly Wade Wellman may not be as well known, but his fantasy and occult stories in publications like Weird Tales can also be felt in D&D, alongside his stories written for Shazam/Captain Marvel, Blackhawk, and The Spirit. Legendary sci-fi/fantasy author Michael Moorcock would dabble in comics from time to time, whether on his own characters or dabbling in other worlds with DC’s Tom Strong. While other writers such as Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft never wrote any comics themselves, their stories and characters live on in comics to this day.
Gary Gygax’s influences were large enough tto devote an entire Appendix, but Dungeons & Dragons influenced entire generations that followed, which extends to comics (both in comics directly taking place in the world of D&D, and other genre books it has inspired). The franchise’s first foray into comics came through ads that ran in Marvel titles in the 1980s, which advertised the RPG modules through comic strips.
The first Dungeons & Dragons officially licensed comic books would come later that decade through DC Comics, which published a variety of titles in the franchise’s larger world, including Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Spelljammer and others. After TSR chose not to renew their license with DC, D&D was largely absent from comics for the nineties. After stints at Kenzer & Company and Devil’s Due, IDW acquired the license in 2010.
The publisher would produce a number of D&D titles ever since, recruiting notable creators like Patrick Rothfuss, R.A. Salvatore, and Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood (even producing crossover series with Rick and Morty and Stranger Things). Writer Jim Zub has written extensively for the franchise, which is fitting, as his earlier Image Comics series Skullkickers felt very much like an irreverent take on D&D.
In addition to Skullkickers, a countless number of comics have been inspired by the franchise since D&D’s earliest days. Jolly Blackburn’s Knights of the Dinner Table was one of the longest-running series to be directly inspired, as it followed the members of a role-playing group with a longstanding game in the D&D stand-in HackMaster, which was eventually turned into an official RPG in its own right.
More recently, Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans’ Die from Image Comics portrayed a group of teenagers who vanished into a fantasy world after playing an RPG created by one of their friends. The story then catches up with them as adults, as they find themselves drawn back to the fantasy world.
With a storied history to its name, Dungeons & Dragons has created a world for fans to lose themselves in for fifty years now. It’s interesting to look back and see what influenced the original creators when they were developing the game all those years ago, just as it is equally interesting to see how it has inspired countless others.
The traditions of fantasy literature may play an integral part in the origins of Dungeons & Dragons, the shared heritage and continuing legacy with the comics medium prove the franchise has deep and varied roots.