GVN Talking Comics Interview: Writer Fred Van Lente And Artist Tom Fowler For Clover Press ‘Gamemasters: The Comic Book History of Roleplaying Games’

Roleplaying games such as Dungeons & Dragons have firmly transitioned from niche to mainstream. Inspiring popular podcasts, highly successful crowdfunding campaigns, and major movies. Now, New York Times bestselling and award-winning comic creators Fred Van Lente (The Comic Book History of Animation), and comic artist Tom Fowler (Books of Magic), along with colorist Bill Crabtree, are chronicling this remarkable journey in their latest graphic novel, “Gamemasters: The Comic Book History of Roleplaying Games.” Starting today, this graphic history is set to be crowdfunded by Clover Press through Kickstarter.

Recently, we had the opportunity to speak with the creative duo of Van Lente and Fowler about their backgrounds and their engaging new book from Clover Press. Our conversation began with Fred Van Lente, focusing initially on his early experiences with writing:

Writer Fred Van Lente

GVN: Thanks for sharing a bit of your time Fred. Like all great stories, let’s start at the beginning. When did you take an interest in writing (and comic book writing in particular) and whose work did you follow that motivated you to pursue that career direction?

FVL: I was a big superhero nut as a kid but was fortunate to hit adolescence right at the big revolution in mainstream comics at the end of my high school years and into college. “Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol,” these were all pretty formative to me. But it wasn’t until I went to Syracuse University and met a bunch of fellow comics nuts who were studying art—guys like Ryan Dunlavey and Steve Ellis, whom I still work with today—that I really took comics writing seriously. After college we all moved to New York to break into the industry, and the industry hasn’t been able to get rid of me since!

GVN: As a big fan of Jack Kirby, I can’t help but ask about your play “King Kirby,” which was co-written by Crystal Skillman and yourself. What motivated you to create this production, and did you gain any new insights about Jack while working on the play?

FVL: Crystal is my wife, and a pretty accomplished playwright, and I was basically copying her by putting research I had accumulated for a never-finished biography on Kirby in dramatic form. A lot of that research wound up in The Comic Book History of Comics, but Crystal added so much to the script I demanded she get credited as co-writer! No matter how much I learn about Kirby there’s still more to find out. I write a column about his work on his birthday at 13th Dimension every year.

GVN: Your latest venture is a collaboration with artist Tom Fowler and Colorist Bill Crabtree, entitled “Gamemasters: The Comic Book History of Roleplaying Games,” which is coming to Kickstarter via Clover Press. What inspired you to explore the world of roleplaying games, and how did you come to work once again with the talented Mr. Fowler?

FVL: I’ve been a huge RPG nut since my parents got me the Dungeons & Dragons Basic set with the Erol Otus cover art when I was, I’m going to say ten years old? But Gamemasters is largely Tom’s idea. I approached him about doing “The Comic Book Story of Basketball” with me for TenStory Press. He passed—and Joe Cooper ultimately did a fantastic art job on that book—but he did say, “Come back when you do a comic book history of RPGs.” And the light bulb went off over my head!

GVN: I mentioned that you are working with Clover Press, which has had great success in bringing quality books to fruition through Kickstarter. How did this partnership come about? Did you pitch to them, or did they approach you?

FVL: It’s a bit of a homecoming for both Tom and I, because Hank Kanalz, head honcho over there, was actually my first editor in professional comics—my first mainstream job was an issue of Prime (hashtag dating me) when he was group editor. And Tom had worked with him on he and Jeff Parker’s great Wildstorm book “Mysterius the Unfathomable.” So, it was a natural fit.

GVN: “You’ve written about comics in ‘The Comic Book History of Comic Books’ and animation in ‘The Comic Book History of Animation,’ and now RPGs. Do you have any other interests that you might tackle in a future book? It’s obvious that you have a passion for the subjects that you cover.

FVL: You know, I’m not sure. Tom and I started this book in 2019. This might be my last one, at least for a while. Ryan Dunlavey, who did Comic Books and Animation with me, has been talking about doing video games, which would be a nice follow-up to Gamemasters, but I am thinking I might be sticking to fiction for a while.

GVN: Thank you once again, Fred. Before we wrap up, could you please share once more with our fan’s details about your upcoming book and any other projects you have in the works?

FVL: It’s just really fascinating to look at the history of an idea like roleplaying games, to see how it began in ancient times with wargames like chess, really took off with Dungeons and Dragons, and created so many innovative rule sets and video games. Participatory make-believe is just a wild topic and Tom has done such a great job bringing it to life. Bill Crabtree on colors is spectacular too. I just can’t wait for everyone to get a copy in their hands.

Next, we focused on artist Tom Fowler and discussed his beginnings and how his collaboration with Fred came about for “Gamemasters: The Comic Book History of Roleplaying Games.”

Artist Tom Fowler

GVN: Thank you very much for the opportunity to chat, Tom. As is my norm for those I am first
meeting, let’s start with a bit of your history. What got you started in art and whose work
inspired you to consider that career path?

TF: Thanks. To be boringly honest, I genuinely don’t remember a time when I didn’t have a
pencil in my hand or want to be a cartoonist. At first as a newspaper cartoonist and then, once I discovered North American comics (it had all been British Dailies, bandes déssinnées, and
Garfield up until then), as a superhero artist. To this day I still carry Albert Uderzo’s influence
with me wherever I go, along with British cartoonists like Thelwell, Searle, and Harry
Hargreaves, and classic EC artists like Wally Wood and Jack Davis. A LOT of Jack Davis. It
was just all I ever wanted to do and once my parents saw how passionate I was they did
everything they could to encourage me.

GVN: When I saw this little blurb, I knew I had to ask about it. What is the history behind “Skrrrrrrlok Gnollmes, World’s Greatest Meat Detective?”

TF: Heh… I have a bit of a history of playing RPG characters that I like to call “agents of chaos.” I like to be the guy to kick in the door if the party is still deliberating after 10 minutes. Skrrrrrrlok came as a bit of fun when I was asked to join a game that my son’s friend was DMing. Mostly I liked the look of a gnoll (basically, a hyena person), found some home-brewed player character rules online, fashioned him a “deerstalker” hat out of two deer heads, and gave him an outrageous French(?) accent. Mostly it was an opportunity to make my son and his friend laugh as I bumbled around a largely alien, to Skrrrrrrlok, world; bragging about my prowess as a meat detective. (In Skrrrrrrlok’s defense he had advantage on all meat-related rolls. So, the prowess was justified.)

GVN: In your career, you have worked with a variety of publishers such as DC, Marvel, Simon
Schuster, Hasbro, Oni, Valiant, and Mad Magazine. Have you found that working with different
publishers has expanded your talents and experience, helping you understand what different
companies want? Or was it simply another job and a means to get your art out there?

TF: I actually started my career as a professional artist working in roleplaying games. Which
provided an excellent opportunity to hone my drawing and inking (and painting!) skills as the
print requirements of gaming books is (was?) very similar to comics. I was always taught to
bring what’s needed by any given job to that individual job, rather than trying to bully my way
through it. I tend to rail against notions like “developing a style.” As far as I’m concerned, you
should just draw. Whatever comes out on the other end is your “style.” I like to look at every job like it’s on a spectrum or slide that goes from abstract to realistic. Then I just slide the scale to suit. The bounce and volume of characters may change depending on whether it’s a Mad parody, a deadly serious street fight, or an alien punching a werewolf, but the hand that draws it (hopefully) remains recognizable as my own. Developing that kind of range is VERY helpful when it comes to a project like Gamemasters, which, while largely comedic, does run from pole to pole with its sometimes very emotional and tragic content.

GVN: You are working with your past partner in creation Fred Van Lente on “Gamemasters: The
Comic Book History of Roleplaying Games” for Clover Press. How did this project come to your
attention and did Fred give you any guidelines or did he just trust in your past partnerships and
history of creating excellence?

AF: Gamemasters came about very organically in the context of how Fred and I often work: in
that it came out of me shooting down a job offer from Fred. However many years ago, while I
was very stressed on another job that I was trying to put together at the time, Fred called me up and said:

“Hey Tom! You want to do a comics history of basketball?!!”

Being both 6’5” and a lifelong “indoor kid,” my immediate and very polite answer was, “no.”

“How about baseball?!!!”

“Still no.”

“Well, is there anything you would like to do a comics history for? Like, in the future?”
*large nerd shrugging noise* “I don’t know… D&D?”

And that was pretty much that. I went back to my anxiety attack and a few months later Fred
had produced the first 3 chapters. I’ve spent the better part of the last 6-7 years pecking away at it between other gigs ever since.

While Fred does all the actual research, we’ve done a lot of back and forth about the actual
storytelling meat, as we always have. So jokes, scenes, symbols, etc… get massaged, changed,
cut, reconfigured. Just as you’d ever want in any creative conversation.

GVN: Clover Press has a great track record with Kickstarter campaigns and making them a success.
While you have a history early on in designing and painting RPG art. What involvement will you
have in perhaps bringing exciting additions to this project? Fans live for stretch goals and the
goodies that might come with them.

TF: We’ve discussed a number of fun bits and pieces for the campaign. From some stickers,
prints, puzzles(?), game mats, and more. Many beautifully coloured by my art partner Bill
Crabtree, and some scanned “raw” from the original art to give that “artist’s edition” feel. I’m
also going to be making a large amount of original art pages and the painted full book cover
available to purchase through the campaign.

Fred and I have also talked about making a lot of the “making of” process available for readers
who like to really know how the sausage is made. We’re still figuring out what form that will
take, but I’m hoping we can put together something especially cool if we hit a certain threshold.

Speaking of which, if the campaign does hit its stretch goal, the book will be getting bigger!
With extra chapters drawn by Ryan Dunlavey, Allison Sampson, and Chris Schweitzer! All of
which I’m super excited to see.

The last tier that I’m riding for is what I call the “agent of chaos” (see above) reward. At a
certain tier I (or more likely Skrrrrrrlok) will jump into your game for up to 3+ hours over
discord or Roll20 and, well… kick in some doors.

GVN: Thank you, Tom, for your kind attention. Before we finish, let me give you an opportunity to tell
fans about this new book with Fred and any other new projects you have coming.

TF: Gamemasters: The Comic Book History of Roleplaying Games is a long laboured over work
of passion by two nerds who’ve not forgotten where they came from. As much as I, myself, love and am fascinated by its subject matter, the real joy of working on this book has been learning so much that I’d never known about the weird and tangled history of an industry that gave, and continues to give, me so much. Thanks again!

Clover Press Gamemasters: The Comic Book History of Roleplaying Games comes to Kickstarter today. If you are a fan of D&D, you will want to check this one out. You can find the campaign here.