The original Chronicle character sheets (minus Thorak).

20 years ago, a group of college students were sitting around a dorm lobby in Nashville, TN playing Dungeons & Dragons. The campaign had been going on for some time and players had already come and gone. But, this group of players had stuck around for awhile and were really enjoying the adventures they were having. They had just escaped a particularly brutal dungeon crawl and were making plans on what to do next.

On this evening, one of the players started drawing the other players’ characters. A talented artist, she had finished six sketches for the group by the end of the night. The DM, an aspiring comic writer and game designer, thought it would be neat if they made a comic. The artist and the DM, both art students, began to brainstorm on self-publishing a comic book based on the actual game sessions of those players.

The idea of a D&D comic would have to not actually reference D&D due to concerns of a big company suing two poor students. Both anime fans, the duo looked to an anime series known for its basis on D&D as well, Record of Lodoss War. Names and specific references would be renamed as in the series and the decision was made to move to a more cartoonish, manga style.

Work on the comic continued for months. The name Chronicle was settled on because it sounded epic and told the story of their games. Little did they know that it had greater significance. Finally, in October of 1999, Issue Zero of Chronicle debuted…