Fred Van Lente is one of Kristian’s favorite comic book writers. Kristian discovered his work years ago while Fred was helping recreate the Valiant line of comic books. On top of having also worked on projects for Marvel Comics and a host of other publishers, Fred has worked on educational non-fiction comics like Action Philosophers and The Comic Book History of Comics. His latest project Gamemasters: The Comic Book History of Roleplaying Games, takes a deep dive into the beginnings and evolution of tabletop roleplaying games. On this episode of the Part-Time Fanboy podcast, Kristian chats with Fred about how the artist of Gamemasters, Tom Fowler, came up with the idea of the book, how the origins of the modern RPG were developed by military troops working out battlefront strategies, and the controversies surrounding the co-creators of Dungeons and Dragons, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.

Part-Time Fanboy. Full-Time obsession on a Part-Time schedule.