This is all based on a D&D game Jason Thompson was running. My friend Rob was the African half-orc who worships Ba'al. The game got pretty complicated, as far as I could tell.

I've mentioned this before, but all the members of the gaming table except Dave and Seth are based on tabletop gamers I know. Iris is based on my friend Laura, and most of the details of the character are taken from life. We are both way into gardening.

Seth is the one who didn't pick up on Iris's pointed mentions of her husband. He told Dave that Iris was single at the Halloween party, hence Dave's misimpression. Anyway, this strip is based on the truth that sooner or later, even your nerdiest friends will get their social lives together and become cooler than you. Right now, for instance, all my friends are suddenly getting married. Even Jason Thompson, the basis for Freddy (who used to be scared of girls), got married last year. It's pretty awesome.

Freddy is wearing a Naruto T-shirt because Jason was editing the manga at the time. Later he passed it on to me for a while.

I have a tendency to draw tables too high.

This strip is basically just here to move the plot along, but what the hell, Dave is cute in it. Also, Iris has really pointy breasts in this strip for some reason.

Nor is Seth's.

Dave is profoundly wrong in this strip. He won't realize it until much, much later, though.