DM of the Rings

Fan Comic
Title:	DM of the Rings
Artist:	Shamus Young
Date(s):	September 7, 2006–September 17, 2007
First Published:
Medium:	Webcomic
Genre/Style:
Fandom:	Lord of the Rings
External Links:	Index page for the comic at Twentysided
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DM of the Rings is a webcomic produced by using screenshots of the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and adding dialogue captions for the various characters, creating a story where the characters are playing a Dungeons and Dragons type game that follows the plot of the film. The comic satirizes the original Tolkien novel, Peter Jackson's film adaptation, tabletop games and general fannish nerdery. Shamus Young posted the comic on his personal blog, Twenty Sided.

The comic was a big success, with hundreds of comments on each installment that led to a community of commenters and fans who as Shamus said, "talked about quantum mechanics, encumbrance, attacks of opportunity, how to convert a d20 to percent, and techniques for breeding Trolls and Balrogs . We’ve had some geeky, geeky conversations. "

The comic is made from unauthorized use of screencaps from the film for which New Line Cinema holds the copyright. On the issue of legality, Shamus said, "I don’t know if they (New Line Cinema) didn’t notice or didn’t care, but I am so glad they didn’t unleash the lawyers and spoil our fun."