Jolly Randall Blackburn is best known as the creator of the comic strip, Knights of the Dinner Table.
Jolly Blackburn majored in anthropology, history, and classical cultures in college.[1] Blackburn later joined the Army, and launched both the gaming magazine Shadis and his company Alderac Entertainment Group (named after his AD&D campaign world) while still in the Army.[1] He conceived of having a comic strip that became Knights of the Dinner Table (KoDT) in 1990 as part of Shadis: "I had been a great fan of J.D. Webster's Finieous Fingers from the early Dragon Magazine, and I wanted something similar. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anyone willing to do a strip. Finally I sat down and drew out a very crude cartoon showing a gamemaster and a player sitting around a table arguing over a rules call."[1] Blackburn based the KoDT characters on friends and fellow players, and B.A. Felton on himself.[1]
Alderac published three issues of a KoDT comic book in 1994-1995, before Blackburn left the company: "I soon became aware that the demand for KoDT was much higher than I had ever realized. That got me thinking about doing it on a monthly schedule."[1] While working at Shadis, Blackburn had made friends with employees of Kenzer & Company. "We discovered that we had so much in common, I decided to come aboard and throw my intellectual properties in the kitty."[1] The KoDT comic strip moved to Dragon in issue #226, becoming very popular. "Over the years I've often wondered just what it is that causes all the fuss... I'm the first to look at the typical strip and say, 'It's not all that!'"[1]