15 years of OOTS

[137beth]

Today, September 25, is the 15th anniversary of The Order of the Stick. The Giant in the Playground forum was launched on August 6 2003 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?9014-Test). Less than two months later, The Giant made a new thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?7333-The-Order-of-the-Stick) announcing OOTS.

Happy birthday to the story that introduced me to webcomics.

[Gift Jeraff]

Here's to another 15!

[denthor]

I got introduced to this off another site that was so full of themselves they invaded this to spread dissent and stir trouble. That was strip 77. That site desideded I was not there type since I enjoyed reading this strip and deleted my account.

I think I chose the better place.

Enthusiastic me wow! I get to read 77 strips and then a few more since it is a three time a week update schedule.

9 books later... dun dun dun. I am still here.

[Lord Torath]

Woo Hoo! Happy Birthday, OotS!

And Rich? I really cannot thank you enough for all the enjoyment your art has given me over the decade or so I've been reading (from sometime around the Thieves' Guild attack on Pete's place. From A Monster for Every Season to Tee Shirts (and stickers and games) to the books to the online-strip (and heck, let's be honest, even the forums), I've enjoyed everything you've shared with us! Thanks!

[wumpus]

15 years? How? Well, 5 1/2 years ago (see strip #1136) was strip #877. And early strips weren't exactly Rich's main focus, and since then he's certainly pushed stick figure art beyond anything imagined.

I think it was strip #449 ("rise ghost martyrs of the sapphire guard and attack"!) that taught me that whatever I'm expecting from OOTS, the Giant will top it. 15 years of an amazing comic.

[Tarthalion]

Here's to another 15!
Good grief, I hope it doesn't take that long to finish the story. I don't want to die of old age (or see A Song of Ice and Fire finished) before Xykon's demise.

I am fine with spin-offs taking us up to that 15 years though.

[Joerg]

Wow, 15 years already. Time flies... I've been reading the comic almost since the beginning, it and the forum have become a small but fixed part of my life. And there have been particularly exciting milestones in between: the first printed book, Rich quitting his previous job, Roy's death, the Darth Vaarsuvius arc, the kickstarter, Durkon's death and most recently his triumph...

Happy birthday OotS!

[Synesthesy]

Where is my oots themed cake? :smallredface:

Happy birthday to the Order!

[Nilan8888]

Happy OOTS birthday!

I first started reading a couple strips into what is now "Blood Runs in the Family", back in... I think it was early or mid-2009.

Wow. That was almost 10 years ago. That's insane!


Here's to all comics past, the current strip being worked on, and all the comics to come!

[Quebbster]

I started reading seriously around the ten year anniversary, so I guess I have been around for a third of the comic's life. Time flies indeed.

[Fyraltari]

Happy birthday!
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSJSl0sCNmCSZTU2_78Y8HPgwLc5O1xD juvfYRfFSo8npKMuR7u

[Jaros]

Oh crap, I started about a year in. I've been reading OotS for literally half my life!

Anyway, happy birthday!

[2D8HP]

I started reading the OotS The Dragon magazine strips first, then the print books, and only then (and being issued a smartphone from work) did I stoop to reading "on-line".

Glad I did!

[pearl jam]

I moved from Taiwan to Japan in December of 2003, and I think I was already reading OOTs before I moved, but if not it was certainly only shortly after, so I've been around almost since the beginning. It's been a lot of fun so far and I'm certainly looking forward to seeing where it goes from here. Thanks, Rich!

[jwhouk]

Wow, 15 years. Not many are that old. QC, WS, GG, PVP, and the outlier Schlock Mercenary.

Way to go, Rich!

[Ted The Bug]

One of the best stories I've ever read. Congrats to Rich! Can't wait to get this next book, whenever this storyline wraps up, so I can keep supporting the comic.

[Lombard]

OMG! It's the OOTS Crystal Anniversary!. (http://www.anniversary.us.com/15thanniversary.html)

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/oots/images/3/31/Crystal.png/revision/latest?cb=20100613055646

[Kancsar]

Good grief, I hope it doesn't take that long to finish the story. I don't want to die of old age (or see A Song of Ice and Fire finished) before Xykon's demise.


Bring me the webcomic stretcher!

Stick figures on an open website!

[Gift Jeraff]

Happy 15th birthday to strip #001.

[Flyingbooks42]

Happy birthday OOTS!
I should make a birthday cake for it.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

Wow, it’s incredible that so long has passed. Happy (belated, oops) birthday to OOTS.

[WoodStock_PV]

Good gods.. then.. when it started I was still in school. O_O''''

15 years. In my country that's a reason to party like Durkon did on the Azure city new year celebration.

I started reading a long time ago.. dunno the year, but bandits in the woods were still a threat.

Giant. Thank you for this wonderful story. I hope I'll see it's conclusion. All good stories have a beggining, a middle and an end

[An Enemy Spy]

I started reading eleven years ago. I caught up at the part where Haley's resistance squad runs afoul of Tsukiko and her wights and Belkar finds Mr. Scruffy.

[GrayDeath]

Amazing, really, keeping (mostly) to a superb standard of quality for this long is a thing very few proffesional authors manage, congratulations Rick, on a Job well done for longer than most readers Half Life (methinks^^)!

Hgappy Birthday, if belatedly, to you and your Brain Child!

[Gift Jeraff]

Wow, it’s incredible that so long has passed. Happy (belated, oops) birthday to OOTS.


Amazing, really, keeping (mostly) to a superb standard of quality for this long is a thing very few proffesional authors manage, congratulations Rick, on a Job well done for longer than most readers Half Life (methinks^^)!

Hgappy Birthday, if belatedly, to you and your Brain Child!

Not belated. 09/29/2003 was when the first strip was uploaded. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?7333-The-Order-of-the-Stick#4)

[An Enemy Spy]

It's weird to think that OOTS was created to be a fun little sideshow for visitors to this website rather than the massive sprawling comedy-epic it's turned into. It's hard to imagine GitP without OOTS.

[Lathund]

Rich, thank you for 15 years of literary entertainment. I sincerely hope you'll manage to finish this story somwhere in the next 15.

I don't remember when I started reading this, but probably early 2005. I remember the comic being stuck on #197 for a long time. Time flies...

[martianmister]

Still not old enough to vote.

[An Enemy Spy]

Rich, thank you for 15 years of literary entertainment. I sincerely hope you'll manage to finish this story somwhere in the next 15.

I don't remember when I started reading this, but probably early 2005. I remember the comic being stuck on #197 for a long time. Time flies...

I never got this got this until now but I think Rich must have sprained his wrist at the time, hence the "Well, it would have gone a lot faster if SOMEONE hadn't sprained their wrist." line Roy directs at Elan.

[Dark_Warrior]

W00t, I remember reading about the comic in a pc magazine when I was in school, but never got to read it before as I was on dial-up.

I started reading it around Miko saga as soon as I got broadband. It has been 13? years or so.

[Rogar Demonblud]

I never got this got this until now but I think Rich must have sprained his wrist at the time, hence the "Well, it would have gone a lot faster if SOMEONE hadn't sprained their wrist." line Roy directs at Elan.

Yeah, Rich was helping somebody move.

[Fan67]

One of my fears in life is that Rich will not be able to finish his story.

I wonder if he has some secret means to deliver the story even if he will be unable to do so?

Like teaching his wife to draw stick figures and sharing the script with her?
Or did put the script into the bank vault with instructions in his Will to deliver it to another comic writer?

[martianmister]

One of my fears in life is that Rich will not be able to finish his story.

I wonder if he has some secret means to deliver the story even if he will be unable to do so?

Like teaching his wife to draw stick figures and sharing the script with her?
Or did put the script into the bank vault with instructions in his Will to deliver it to another comic writer?

This seems familiar.

[Mad Humanist]

This seems familiar.

Yes this feeling is so common we need a word for it: thanatoburlewphobia perhaps.

[keybounce]

I remember Rich saying that we are past the halfway point, so perhaps 10 more years to finish?

[Phhase]

A modern classic. Hell, a modern epic! This story's one of my all-time favorites.

[martianmister]

I remember Rich saying that we are past the halfway point, so perhaps 10 more years to finish?

But he said that years ago.

[hamishspence]

I remember Rich saying that we are past the halfway point, so perhaps 10 more years to finish?

But he said that years ago.

Yup - in Don't Split The Party commentary, he said the "halfway point" (not necessarily in page count, but in story), was in that book:

This book right here represents a milestone for the comic: by the time you've finished it, you will have passed the halfway point of the story. Maybe not by page count; my tendency to run long may put more strips remaining than have passed, though I doubt it. But there will definitely be less compilation books forthcoming than have already been published, if you count this one. From this point on there will be more answers than question, more conclusions than mysteries, more resolution than set-up. At least, that's the plan. As in so many things, it may not work out exactly as I intended it.

And later, after Blood Runs in the Family was published, and people were asking how many books of the main story there would be (not counting prequels, sidequels, etc), the answer was:


Yeah, it'll be seven, even if the last one looks like a phone book.