An introduction

Hi there,

Just signed up again, after an abscence of QUITE a while, so I thought
I'd
introduce myself...

My name's John Kovalic. Currently, I draw a comic strip and comic book
called DORK TOWER.
I've been a gamer for about 20 year now (gaaah!). I'm 36, which bemuses
me.
A year ago, someone referred to me as a "veteran of the gaming
industry,"
which scares the hell out of me.

I was born in Manchester, England, but am a dual national of Great
Britain
and the United States. The first gaming I ever did was miniatures, with
1/72nd scale Airfix tanks and solidiers. Then I found out about board
gaming with SPI's Panzer '44. I got into Dungeons and Dragons in high
school in England (with the little white boxed version). I soon got
hooked
on Traveller (the little black box version). Games companies then
stopped
putting out little boxed versions of anything, so I had to move on. :-)

Both Dungeons and Dragons and Traveller, by the way, were bought at
Games
Workshop's Hammersmith shop, when it was a *real* games store...and a
GREAT
one at that! Brits on the list will know what I'm talking about.

My degree was in Economics. I've got a minor in Astrophysics. I've never
used either. They allowed me to skip two out of three classes at college
(the University of London/Queen Mary College followed by the University
of
Wisconsin) and still get "A"s. This meant I could hang out at the
student
newspapers and draw cartoons and play Traveller.

In real life, I used to be a journalist for the State Journal in
Madison,
Wisconsin. I quit the paper three weeks before my wedding (three years
ago), to take the plunge and concentrate on cartooning. (There's an
interesting story about my wedding, and how I got my wife into the pages
of
the National Enquirer, on the "Personal" section of my web site at
http://kovalic.com/kovalic/ . It's too weird to go into here).

My first professional gaming industry experience was back in 1995, when
Scott Haring asked me to take over the reins of the venerable MURPHY'S
RULES. One of my proudest achievements in the biz, up to this point, is
that I'm now the feature's longest-serving artist.

I don't have a lot of time to game, anymore, so I tend to be selective
about what I play. FULL THRUST	is a passion. My roleplaying group is
the
inspiration for DORK TOWER. When its my turn to run games, they tend to
be
Call of Cthulhu and GURPS.

I play a lot of historical miniatures games, and Madison, Wisconsin
(where
I now reside) has a VERY healthy miniatures scene. I play very few
Collectible Card Games, and one of these days I *will* go through my old
Magic cards and sell them off. My wife is a good sport about all this,
and
accepts gaming. She herself has learned to enjoy train games and "Kill
Dr.
Lucky," although she'll never roleplay again after I foolishly used Call
of
Cthulhu as her introduction to that side of the hobby.

On the plus side, she DID buy her wedding dress using proceeds from the
beta Black Lotus card she had. If THAT'S not a geek story, I don't know
what is.

One day, I'd like to try the other GZG games. But until I have the time,
Full Thrust is a great way for me to relax. I've used it with GZG minis
(my
fleets are NAC and FSE), and for Star Trek and Star Wars MicroMachine
minis. I'm looking forward to a Battlefleet Gothic conversion. And the
Mecha rules fascinate me. We'll see...

Anyway, hope this wasn't too long-winded! (And Hi, Jon!)

John K.

				     -----------------------

	 DORK TOWER #4 (with the FREE CHEAPASS GAME) is OUT NOW!

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       "This must be Thursday. I never COULD get the hang of Thursdays"
					      - Arthur Dent
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	      "Dork Tower," "Shop Keep," "Wild Life," "Murphy's Rules":
       at 'TOON CENTRAL: http://kovalic.com  - e-mail: john@kovalic.com
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